Love Songs

Romantic, funny, sad, moving
Ismael (Louis Garrel, the Gallic version of the adorable young Hugh Grant), lives with Julie (Ludivine Sagnier). Alice (Clotilde Hesme), who works with Ismael, shares their bed and Julie's affections. On a night of tragedy, Jeanne, unawares, hooks up with Gwendal (Yannick Renier), whose teen-aged brother Erwann (Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet) turns out to be the only one who can bring a shattered Ismael back to life, in the most romantic man-on-man love scene since Rupert Grave's Alec Scudder climbed through Maurice's bedroom window 20 years ago. With rain-slicked streets, coffee and cigarettes, references to a dozen French classics, a haunting score and the best balcony scene since "Romeo and Juliet," this low-budget charmer, which has become a cult favorite in France with the under-25 set, is an "Umbrellas of Cherbourg" for the 21st Century.

...And now for something COMPLETELY different...
I caught this film one night on the IFC and although I usually dislike subtitled movies because I get distracted from the action by having to read....I watched it and WOW. The French really know how to make a musical in the non-conformist way. Songs are blended into scenes as casually as breathing and the plots and subplots of each characters stories just weave into each other in a playful way. All of the actors do their own songs in whatever voice they have which gives a "realness" to it and the twists in the story are interesting.
It's a case of boy meets girl meets girl till death us do part and then everyone realizes what boy really wants.
If you like cine-art type films and are not going to roll your eyes when the characters calmly start singing their lines and threesomes, homosexuality and bisexuality don't freak you out...then by all means buy this film to add to your collection. I did after viewing on cable and I love it!

A Classic in its genre
Even if the French/English translation is not 100% acurate - even if the poetry has been lost in translation - this movie is a real Classico/modern sex tale of 2008.
A love triangle - sadness and love are the main theme of the movie
Great Paris shots - color and black and white - the streets - cafes - cigarettes .............. you are transported in Paris by nights most of the time.
It is the photography and musicality that makes this movie a piece of art - sometimes compared to the "parapluies de cherbourg" because of the songs styles - but for the rest we are in 2008 and deep in it.
This is VERY french, with a real style that is unique and will probably be a Classic in its genre.
If you want a trip to Paris with love stories - this is the one to get

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