MOVIE WEEK: "Love Songs"

I have decided to start a themed week series that will continue through as a tradition with usually repeating themes, but well the world has enough material for several hundred reruns of a themed week, so I am not worried. So with great Solemnity I declare: “Welcome to Random Movie Week”, which means that for seven days I will post seven reviews of randomly picked movies I think are worth mentioning.

First stop is a small pearl of the French movie genius. “Love Songs” is a 2007 musical, which ran in 2007 Cannes festival with two other movies and was nominated for a Golden palm Award. The movie is directed by Christophne Honore and is about life, death, and love and all of their aspects intertwined into an unusual story.

Ismael (Louis Garrel) works at a magazine and is an a very heated, passionate love-hate relationship with Julie (Ludivine Sagnier). What makes things even more interesting is that the relationship is not monogamous and the third partner is Alice (Clotilde Hesme), who happens to be Ismael’s coworker. Of course being a threesome is a bubbling cauldron of problems such as Julie’s constant fits of jealousy, Ismael’s inability to act adequately with both women and Alice’s unsatisfaction and sadness with being unacknowledged as an equal in the relationship. However when Julie dies from natural causes Ismael is left in ruins and Alice is left out emotionally from what is going on with him, but remains a close friend. Through her she meets Erwann, who is the brother of Alice’s new boyfriend and through the short time of their friendship become lovers. This comes as a great shock to Julie’s family as they are very close to Ismael.

What I liked about this movie is the typical French approach to love in different aspects and to fit everything from pure emotions to threesomes and gay relationships. The atmosphere is weird because of this story line and yet you get the usual notes of melancholy and depressions that outline everything, even the moments of happiness. Being a musical a role in this all is the fact that throughout the 90 minutes I listened to 14 magnificent songs, performed by the actors in the movie with great artistic spirit, body language and facial expressions. The lyrics are incredible in their own originality and metaphor, although I can’t provide translations at this time. However I will offer you a sample of the beginning songs from the movie with a video. “Love Songs” is a movie worth watching with great depth, sensuality and that tongue in cheek vibe we get from time to time, typical for France. Enjoy: