European Films

Young French actor Louis Garrel, he with the mob of unruly black hair from Bertolucci’s The Dreamers, again plays a similar character in a very different film directed by his father Philippe entitled Les amants réguliers (Regular Lovers). Whilst Bertolucci’s coloured feast of period detail has been likened to a prolonged and elaborately filmed perfume ad, Garrel opts for a stark black-and-white film stripped to the bare essentials (though not in running time; almost three hours!) that recalls the cinema of his beloved French New Wave. Knowledge of The Dreamers is not essential since they are different films about different characters, but having seen Bertolucci's take on the 1968 student revolution will enhance the viewing experience of Garrel’s latest film immensely, since it was deliberately constructed as an answer to that earlier film.

 

Les amants réguliers focuses on François (Garrel Jr), a poetry lover and writer who is part of the May 1968 Parisian student demonstrations that the participants hoped would ignite a revolution. As we know now, all they ignited where the Molotov cocktails they threw at the police and the cars they used to hide themselves behind during the skirmishes. The opening sequence, which lasts for over twenty minutes, is almost devoid of dialogue and uses minimal cuts and camera-movement to create the impression we are watching a news-reel or a documentary. There is only sparse use of music and most of the noise (or lack thereof) springs directly from the action. As could be expected from a film that is primarily a reaction on another film, Garrel does not explain much. If one were unaware that this film was about May 1968 in Paris, this sequence would be a riddle until the shot of a newspaper headline which explains things after about forty-five minutes.

 

The film is formally divided in three parts, with the second and the third part concentrating explicitly on what Bertolucci’s film lacked: the aftermath of the failed revolution, as people get lost in drugs and dream their vain dreams of a revolution that could still happen. “Can we have a revolution for the proletariat despite the proletariat?” one of the characters muses, probably aware that the possibility of a revolution is now further away than ever. Besides the drugs, there are other ways to get over lost opportunities: François befriends a girl called Lilie (newcomer Clotilde Hesme, a real find) who might make him forget about what could have been.

Garrel’s film is formally exciting, well-structured and -acted and the thematic content is interesting but unfortunately not enough to warrant one’s attention for three straight hours. The film's scenes often run way beyond what is needed to make the point, which often leaves us with William Lubtchansky's beautifully composed cinematography but not much else. As a film on its own, Les amants réguliers is of the admirable, artistic type that one should certainly see, but preferably at home, where the fast forward button is always just within reach. Perhaps my attention span just does not go beyond perfume ads.

 

 

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