Certainly nobody's perfect in the newest film by director Philippe Garrel. He also wrote the script together with 3 other people including Academy award winner Jean-Claude Carrière. For that collection of writers, it is a fairly short film, does not even reach the 75-minute mark. Needless to say it is French language from start to finish, so you may need subtitles, and it is also entirely shot in black-and-white. To me personally, this is an appealing feature. I like new films in black-and-white à la "The Artist". And with the French dialogs, the film certainly gets a touch of François Truffaut, for example his "Antoine et Colette". The narration helps a lot too. This part comes from actor Louis Garrel, son of the director.
I must say this film was definitely an interesting watch. There is nothing big happening at any point, but it's a realistic depiction of life, love and interactions between the characters. Who stays together, who breaks up? Occasionally, I was even tempted to give this film a ****/*****, not much was missing for such a rating. And even if I did not give it in the end, I still very much enjoyed the film. The writing and performances from the characters are all really really good and totally make sense. The female lead reminded me of a mix between Julie Delpy and Joely Richardson. Courau and Merhar prove why they have been very reliable for decades in the business and Paugam (stunning Rebecca Hall lookalike) shows that she will hopefully have a bright future ahead.
Like I said earlier, this film is a great watch for everybody who loves French black-and-white films like Truffaut's for example. But it is certainly also worth seeing for everybody who just likes good character studies or French films in general. As usual, I can only give the recommendation to watch this in the French original with subtitles perhaps and no dubbed version. The language adds a whole lot to the atmosphere of the films. I had a really good time watching this and if any of the above descriptions fits you, I am positive that you will also find this an enriching experience. Very much recommended and it made me curious about digging deeper into Garrel's impressive body of work. And finally a few words on the resistance fighter. My guess is that the director wanted to show us how we, the audience, are just as naive as the male protagonist when he says his wife would never cheat on him. We see the resistance fighter as some kind of saint the way he is depicted early on until we find out the ugly truth at the end. Trust nobody.
I must say this film was definitely an interesting watch. There is nothing big happening at any point, but it's a realistic depiction of life, love and interactions between the characters. Who stays together, who breaks up? Occasionally, I was even tempted to give this film a ****/*****, not much was missing for such a rating. And even if I did not give it in the end, I still very much enjoyed the film. The writing and performances from the characters are all really really good and totally make sense. The female lead reminded me of a mix between Julie Delpy and Joely Richardson. Courau and Merhar prove why they have been very reliable for decades in the business and Paugam (stunning Rebecca Hall lookalike) shows that she will hopefully have a bright future ahead.
Like I said earlier, this film is a great watch for everybody who loves French black-and-white films like Truffaut's for example. But it is certainly also worth seeing for everybody who just likes good character studies or French films in general. As usual, I can only give the recommendation to watch this in the French original with subtitles perhaps and no dubbed version. The language adds a whole lot to the atmosphere of the films. I had a really good time watching this and if any of the above descriptions fits you, I am positive that you will also find this an enriching experience. Very much recommended and it made me curious about digging deeper into Garrel's impressive body of work. And finally a few words on the resistance fighter. My guess is that the director wanted to show us how we, the audience, are just as naive as the male protagonist when he says his wife would never cheat on him. We see the resistance fighter as some kind of saint the way he is depicted early on until we find out the ugly truth at the end. Trust nobody.