Les Amants rguliers, Regular Lovers (2005) 

Directed by Philippe Garrel

Starring Louis Garrel, Clotilde Hesme

Sad to say it was a wasted three hours, all the style of a sixties French movie, authenticity in the look of everything from clothing, hairstyles, decor etc but emotionally stone cold dead! It didn't grab me in any way at all in fact it felt like a three hour sketch parodying the worst aspects and indulgences of the Nouvelle Vague. You can't make a successful film just by name dropping other directors and imitating sequences from their films, a certain dance moment for one. 

I would judge that the feel of the film was of paramount importance to the director, 4:3 screen ratio, credits listed at the beginning, purely monochromatic film, add scratches and at times fuzzy sound to give it that authentic sixties vibe but did they really need to incorporate pure white subtitles? Great idea, just like the first dvd release of La Haine, the subs were totally illegible for the majority of the film, sometimes common sense needs to prevail!

Anyway, sorry to admit that I found the characters and plot utterly un-engaging, I was hoping for a lot more than this, if the running time had been halved it may have resulted in a far better film and viewing experience.

One good thing though, it did make me want to watch some good films from that period so I'll probably be revisiting some early Godard and Truffaut amongst others, even Bertolucci's "The Dreamers" which of course also starred Louis Garrel whom I've just realised is the directors son seems more appealing at the moment. 

Great style, no substance. 

Cheers Trev.

Distributed by Artificial Eye in the UK.

BBFC rated 18 - because of the level of drug use.