Les Chansons D'Amour

I unintentionally took the week off from posting, not sure why. Correcting that now.

LOVE SONGS (Les Chansons D'Amour) is finnally seeing a US dvd release (11/11/o8)... which is odd because it's been available from Netflix for months and I've watched it like 4 times!....I digress.

The film from director Christophe Honoré (Ma Mère, Dans Paris) is a musical meditation of the malleable e nature of love and the unexpected journeys life takes one on in the face of tragedy. It sounds heavy, and at times it is, the cast are all superb, and the evocative cinematography capture the bleakness of Paris on a rainy winter's day better than I've ever seen before. This is a film about love and as love and loss are inextricably linked, it is also about redemption and hope. Louis Garrel, Ludivine Sagnier, and Clotilde Hesme play a mid-20's threesome who are unraveling before a tragedy strikes the group and forces some lines to drawn, and others to be erased completely. Chiara Mastroianni, gives a devastating supporting turn as Jeanne the sister to Ludivine Sagniers character proving that good genes are are a damn good thing (she's the daughter of Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni) Releative new-comer Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet steals his scenes with the jubilant swooning romanticism and school boy charm (and a very cute pair of American Apparel underwear). Despite the heavy story line, it is a musical after all, the film swims in the need for love and connection. The film is perfectly encapsulated in the moment when one character says to another "love me less, but love me a long time"

This was actually one of my favorite films of 2007 (from one of my favorite directors) and it's a shame it didn't see a wider release here in the states as it's far better than ANY film Hollywood offered to the mid-20 urban set.




Check out the trailers for Christophe Honoré's previous films starring Louis Garrel below.






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