Love Songs

Rating NR Formats DVD Genre musical Starring Louis Garrel, Ludivine Sagnier, Clotilde Hesme Directed by Christophe Honore Publisher IFC Films

Love Songs is a different kind of musical to be sure.  The film follows a young man named Ismael in modern day Paris as he deals with life, love, and loss.  It starts off with Ismael, played by Louis Garrel, and his long time girlfriend Julie, played by Ludivine Sagnier, at odds – through song of course – as they come to terms with a relationship that has gone stale.  In addition to the problems they’re facing they’ve taken on a lover by the name of Alice, played by Clotilde Hesme.  The three have a functioning dysfunctional relationship where none of them seem to be really all that happy.

Without spoiling the film I’ll just say that a devastating event occurs that changes their relationship.  This event sets the characters, especially Ismael, into a downward spiral that he spends the rest of the movie trying to overcome.  This is what I admire about Love Songs.  Most films, when you hear musical images of elaborate dance numbers and vibrate fantasies pop into your head, but Love Songs defies these expectations.  Most of the songs in the film deal with sadness, depression and the inability to love.  This film is a true drama that just happens to be a musical.

On the flip side though, I didn’t find the film that compelling.  When I watch a musical I also expect to be engaged in the characters and the plot.  I felt at times it was a little slow and once or twice I wanted to say ‘ok, enough, I get it, you’re sad’.  I didn’t find the songs all that catchy, but that could be attributed to the fact that they’re all sung in a language in which I’m not familiar.  I think that was part of the problem why I couldn’t get into the film because hearing a song and reading a song are vastly different experiences. 

But, don’t get me wrong, Love Songs wasn’t all bad.  The acting, I thought, was pretty good.  I mentioned the three main actors, but there are about ten other actors that that rounded out the talented supporting cast.  There were several roles that only had a few lines in one or two scenes and they managed to come across real and deeper than what we see on screen.  This is especially true of the four actors that made up Julie’s family, played by Chiara Mastroianni, Brigitte Rouan, Alice Butaud, and Jean Marie Winling.

Overall I think this film is worth seeing, even more so if you speak French.  Love Song kind of reminded me or the movie Rent in its style and subject matter, although not as good as Rent.  So if you liked Rent and similar films you might enjoy this film as well.  Like I said, Love Songs isn’t your typical musical but it has some of the value and definitely the quality of what you’d expect from one.