Love Songs

FLICK There are many references to well-known French films in Christophe Honoré's L'Chansons d'Amour (Love Songs) but the tone of this romantic musical feels fresh and original. For those fearful of characters bursting into song, the transitions here are smooth, natural and effortless, reminiscent of the film Once, which is due to Honoré's direction. When the characters are outdoors, the scenes look as if they're happening in the midst of an average day. Nothing ever feels staged.
Lovers Julie and Ismaël (Ludivine Sagnier and Louis Garrel) have added a third, Alice (Clotilde Hesme), to their relationship. That this is more for Julie's delight than Ismaël's perhaps signals the overload, figuratively and literally, on her heart. Julie's mother (Brigitte Roüan) is fascinated with this arrangement and Julie's older sister Jeanne (Chiara Mastroianni) eventually develops a crush on Ismaël that may be an involuntary reaction to a tragedy. Though the girl-boy-girl relationship is presented in a way that's believable and works, the later moments with Ismaël and the young Erwann (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, who gave another fine performace in In the Arms of My Enemy screened at the 2008 Philadelphia Film Festival) has the emotional resonance that we've been waiting for.
The overall story is sketchy and it's this simplicity that lends more weight to the songs. Singer/songwriter Alex Beaupain, who previously worked with Honoré on the films 17 Times Cécile Cassard and Dans Paris targets the emotions of the characters and hits a bull's eye when choosing the words to explain their connections and interlocking moments alternately with meaning and a lighthearted rhyme scheme. His music is never intrusive and eases its way into the scene as if it were meant to be there.
With the looks of a silent screen matinee idol, Garrel easily and appropriately expresses an array of emotions that vary from light and charming to mournful to playful clown. And shows a comfortable ease of loving a man as well as a woman. When Erwann gives off a stalker-ish vibe, Ismaël realizes that he's being offered a love that he's missing. He satisfies them both by telling him: "love me less but love me a long time." This is a film I'll love, and enjoy re-watching, for a long time. My Score: 8.5 out of 10.