Chanson d\'amour poster

I watched Christophe Honoré’s latest film, presented last year in the Cannes Film Festival. Les Chansons D’Amour (Love Songs) is a kind of musical, though the songs are neither a chance for the characters to burst into dance routines, neither are actually move on the story. You can say it is more of a voice over, interludes that let the plot to go on while living the lyrics to express thoughts. So don’t expect any tap dancing, or spectacular costumes. The things are kept to the bare necessities that Nouvelle Vague taught us, while the songs are in the ballad, grieving tone that leads the story from the beginning. The wonderful Luis Garell plays Ismael. Isamel and his girlfriend Julie, Ludivine Sagnier well known from Ozon’s 8 Femmes and La Piscine, start a threesome with Isamel’s colleague Alice.

chnasons d'amour still

 

In the first part the movie explores this threesome and how it affects their relationship, without ever judging it, as the love of Ismael and Julie is never in question. And while you think that you have one more French movie exploring bourgeois sexual problems, Julie dies of heart attack, leaving Ismael in limbo. Ismael though continues in the same rhythme, not being able to accept his loss, and his confusion grows more and more. Despite a big loss of rhythm in the second part, Honore just leads thing to a third part that really changes everything, talking about love, not social conventions that we all put first. He lets feelings flow, fighting over romantic comedies, silly clichés, stupid vows of eternal love, sexes, or sexual orientations. The film is categorized under lesbian, bisexual and gay but I don’t think that tha film has to do with sexual orientation. It’s just this phrase that concludes all, the need of duration, the need of not going to the edge if you don’t have it. This phrase that I so want to write on my bedroom wall

 

Love me less but love me longer