So because I really have to share with SOMEONE I have decided that I am going to keep you hostages and deliver a few try-ons pics at the end of this post only if you make it throught the first part.
To make things easier for you, my dear hostages, I won't annoy you with the review of the movie that I have just seen. It was a TERRIBLE movie, maybe the worst French movie that I have ever seen. However, it was shot in a striking black and white (that we don't get to see very often these days) and it featured a young actor who has probably become the new icon of French cinema (at least of the "cinema d'auteur", mr. Louis Garrel.
If you don't know who Louis Garrel is, let me introduce him to you, in his typical frowing expression and intense look:
You will agree that he is handsome like a Greek God but that frowning, the fact that he almost never smile and is always smoking a cigarette and the fact that is always more or less playing the same role (of the student/intellectual who easily falls in and out of love) make him the natural successor of Jean-Pierre Léaud, the fetish actor of French director Francois Truffaut (who wasn't that handsome but probably more mature as an actor). Like Antoine Doinel, Léaud character and alter ego in the Truffaut movies, he is not really likeable in the movies he plays in. He always appears a little bit gloomy, or melancholic or plain bored. But he has a magnetic glance that keeps your eyes glued to the screen.
In the USA, you probably know him for one of his first features, Bernardo Bertolucci's "The dreamers", a steamy drama about the student riots of May '68 in Paris where he was playing (almost all the time naked) against Michael Pitt and Eva Green. Interestingly enough, his father, French director Philippe Garrel, shot a beautiful higly contrasted black and white movie a few years later on the same events and with Louis as one of the main characters which is to me the best movie on May 68 ever done. The movie is "Regular lovers" and you can rent it on Netflix but it is a 3 hours black and white movie with very slow scenes (a lot of walking without talking) and if you are not used to French movies or not interested at all in May 68 it will simply put you to sleep (but if you make through it it is one of real cinematographic experience).
This is the poster of "Regular Lovers" and it really conveys the beauty of the movie:
BTW, this outfit is mr. Garrel perennial outfit. You will always see him in a white shirt and black pants/jacket. I am not complaining, he certainly knows how to wear a white shirt with carefree elegance:
Besides working with his father, Louis is himself the fetish actor of director Christophe Honore and appears in almost all his movies. I recentlty watched "The beautiful person" and I really liked it but it has probably something to do with the fact that it reminded me of my daily life in Paris. If I had to recommend a movie by Christophe Honore and with Louis Garrel I would pick "Love songs", which is a musical, a genre that we normally don't associate with French cinema. It is a very surprising and original movie (again, it helps if you are used to French movies), and I have sang the songs for weeks after watching it.
Anyway, I just wanted to see if there are any fans of Louis Garrel out there. If yes, please share your favorite movie.
I lied by the way, the reviews are for tomorrow, it is too late now, I need a few hours of sleep before my daughter wakes me up. Dorry for taking you hostage without a reward (besides this one):
