malta54 I just saw myself in the film as "Erwann" and discovered how the director successfully depicted homosexuality in such a pure and romantic way. Not putting "love" any borders is really the strongest part of the film. Ludivine Sagnier is the strongest candidate for being the new Catherine Deneuve of France. I think the new stars of France are Ludivine Sagnier and Benoit Magimel. Thanks to French cinema for having such nice actors, actresses, directors and producers. But I just waited a popular love song which all the world knows among all these epique ones. Another concern of mine is about the cross-cultural roleplaying experiences of French actors and actresses. They exist generally in French oriented films. I just want to see all these players co-playing with other countries' roleplayers and directors too.

dead47548 A perfect blend of playfulness, joy, sexuality and complete and utter tragedy. All of this is weaved in through the story and, more importantly, the songs themselves. The actors expertly portray every moment of it all, pouring their hearts into the songs whether it's a bouncy battle between two lovers with another lover in between or a lonely sister wishing for just one more hour of hope. I don't want to spoil a really big moment that provides all of that tragedy, but something happens relatively early on that floored me. Louis Garrel is an excellent lead and portal into all of these different people, and the supporting cast rounds everything off without missing a beat. The beautiful Ludivine Sagnier, the heartfelt Chiara Mastroianni and one of the most gorgeous women I've ever seen, Clotilde Hesme, are all brilliant. It swept me off my feet practically right off the bat and kept me floating throughout the whole thing. A fantastic movie, one of my favorites of '08 and of all time, for that matter.

DICK STEEL In the running for the Palme d'Or in last year's Cannes Film Festival, Love Songs by Christophe Honore was nothing like what the writeup used in the festival synopsis would have let you believe. Either that, or I'm really dense to have trusted what was essentially a verbatim recap of only the first of three segments that this movie was split into – Departure, Absence and Return.Rather than dwell on the non-existent and off screen manège-a-trios, it's more of a tale of grief and the handling of grief after personal tragedy. It seemed like an exploration of venturing into the extremes, of being experimental for the sheer thrill of it, of trying to lead a vastly different lifestyle in other to drown all memories of the deceased, of numbing oneself in excessive, meaningless sex. I would have welcomed the viewpoints of family members in depth, as the movie did spend some time to set up those characters, only to have relegated them with sideshow treatment, nothing more than caricatures from parents who try to engage their child's friends in order to discover hidden secrets unknown to them, to siblings who hang around trying to come to grips with the loss, only to find some questionable , eyebrow raising antics leading to assumptions and quick conclusions.As a musical, the songs did feel a little out of place when the characters start to break into them, and seriously, I thought the lyrics could have been lost in translation, as sometimes I could not see how they either move the narrative forward, or speak from the heart the innermost thoughts from the characters mouthing those words. At some points it really felt a little bit forced, and have left one wondering about the relevance of those phrases sung, so while the meaning have probably been lost in me, it might be of relevance to French speakers.While the movie stars Louis Garrel, Ludivine Sagnier and Clotilde Hesme, the bulk of the screen time belonged to Garrel's Ismael. The threesome relationship between their characters weren't exactly explained, only that they are strange bedfellows sharing their nights together. While Sagnier's Julie did reveal her uneasiness at such an arrangement, Hesme's Alice already knows of the boundaries within their relationships that she cannot cross, and as they toy around those forbidden lines, any sense of angst and unhappiness get sung away quite fleetingly.In short, it's a film that lacked some crucial emotional punch, preferring to just scratch the surface and try to get away with it. Definitely trying to appeal to the niche crowd with its dalliances with hetero/lesbian/gay themes, but ultimately, came across as very forced and pretentious, trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole, if you can pardon the pun. Disappointing stuff.

merveillesxx In World Film Festival 2005, Alain Resnais's Not On The Lips (2003, B) gave me a good sleep, on the contrary, Honore's Love Song is such the film which I thoroughly enjoy. Consciously, I accept the nature of musical film (many friends of mine can't resist when the character suddenly sings a song), but the hardest part is the classical style of music (or an old-fashioned one). Fortunately, this film used the modern pop-rock music which is really my type.Love Songs is like a sequel for Inside Paris (2006, A+), still portrayed about Parisian people in intellectual way (mostly presented via the dialogs). The film always gave me a surprise, but the most interesting one is the third part that motioned about gay issue. From my experience, there are a lot of gay movies but I rarely see a gay musical film. The ending also made a sexual ideology of the film daringly explicit. But I can feel that many audiences can't accept the conclusion of Love Songs. But I desirably love it, very suitable of the title "Love Songs", because Love is the universal language.Things I can observe from Love Songs (It may be my wrong understanding) 1) The scenes that all three main characters sleeping on the same bed was possibly inspired from Scene from the Marriage (1973, Ingmar Bergman) 2) There was a "Nobody Knows" poster in the gay character's room. (I'm not sure about its purpose.)