When I first saw the trailer for Christophe Honore’s new film Love Songs I didn’t know what to make of it. What started out as a Antoine Doinelesque (Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board) look at 3 lovers, soon turned into a montage of French songs, with the actors singing and moving to the music. At first it wasn’t clear if the characters were supposed to be singing, but then it became obvious that the film was in fact a musical. I saw the trailer 2-3 more times in the next week and by the 3rd time I was getting into it quite a bit and YouTube’d it.

After maybe 12 viewings, I knew I wanted to see the film. So when I heard that the director Christophe Honore and star Louis Garrel would be in Brooklyn on March 2nd for an advanced screening, I bought my ticket right away, expecting a fun and musical movie experience. The film had moments of fun and great songs, but it was darker than expected and after the Q&A I realized it was also more political than it appeared.

The story of the film revolves around Garrel’s Ismael. When we meet him, he is with Julie (Ludivine Sagnier) and has been been for quite some time. Although it’s never directly revealed why, it is clear they are in the middle of a rocky patch in their relationship. In hopes of adding more spark to their situation, Ismael and Julie add Alice (Clotilde Hesme) to their pair - making the relationship a threesome. From here unexpected circumstance cause Ismael to rethink his life and his loves. The trailer makes it seem like the addition of a Erwann (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet) to the equation influences the threesome, but in fact, he serves quite a different purpose (that’s all I can say without giving it all away!)

The music in the film is amazing, the songs slowly grow on you as you watch the best young French film stars sing and bring Alex Beaupain’s music to life. The only downside is that some of the beauty of the music is lost in the translation from French to English - I recommend reading the subtitles during the beginning of each song and then ignoring them after you get a grasp of what’s being said. The body language and music will guide the rest of the way and you won’t be distracted from seemingly strange word choice.

During the Q&A, a woman asked Honore why the film wasn’t very political, as she likes filmmakers that put issues in their films. He responded by talking about the last round of elections held in France. And how conservative candidate Sarkozy (now the president) campaigned for a France “for those who wake up early” - a direct comment on how it was the young folks in France who were ruining the country with their laziness. Honore, with Love Songs, wanted to make a film “for those you wake up late” - a film that speaks to the spirit of the youth.

For many (me included) that spirit was also reminiscent of the French New Wave of the 60’s - and while Honore didn’t draw directly from those films, he does think there is a connection:

“I think [this film] has a kind of link with the New Wave because we are in a similar situation today,” Honore said, criticizing the rigid process of mainstream filmmaking here in his own country.

“There is a return to an academic cinema as there was in the 1950s. People are talking about the difficulty of making artistic films.” Continuing the thought, he added that the way to get around such hurdles can be by making films quickly with people he is close to or has worked with before.

“This idea of getting together ideas and resources is a lesson of the New Wave, you can do this without discarding artistic demands.”[Indiewire]

to learn about upcoming screenings of the film and for more on the May elections in France and young people reacted, again.