Le genre humain - 1ère partie: Les Parisiens

First of all I am French and I live in Hollywood and that says a lot. I am usually not keen on French movies except those made before the 70s. We just had the best movies ever in the world. Actors such as Delon, Belmondo, Marais, Bourvil, Fernandel, De Funes were just amazing. Some still play and are worth seeing like JP Mariel, an amazing actor. I met once Lelouch in the street and the guy strikes me as being so nice, so curious. I had to see his last movie. My god. This is what I miss of France. This is France at its best. I hate those critics in France they are all destroying the movie because of the first degree of the movie. In France people say anything as long as it looks intellectual. A movie is made to make us moove. I want to feel and I want to cry, to shout, to laugh. Lelouch has made just that. He has a way to follow actors just like he would caress them. This is beautiful. Lots of small beautiful and full of sensuality scenes. The seduction, the love between the characters are so true and so French. This girl falling in love with an old guy in the street who is poor too..only in France. America has to learn a lot from that movie. It reminds me of la dolce vita with Marcello. It is not a movie, it is a visual poetry. Yes France kept its vitality and grace thanks to Lelouch. Lelouch, please be the next president of USA, you d change everybody. Check out the scene between Arielle Dombasle and our great comic, jazzman mr..I forget his name. There is also a theme behind it...we are all faithful as long as we do not find better. It is not up to me to decide of the reality of it, it is up to you to see the movie and see the truth blowing in front of you. Lelouch is a terrorist of love.

This is quite an usual "Lelouch" movie: there are many different characters all slightly related to each other and the main subject is "what is it to love". I loved that part of the movie, this is why I go and see Lelouch's movie.

What I didn't like is first the title: very pompous and pretentious I think. Very pretentious also of Lelouch to be himself in his own movie. When he says to the actors that they overact, well he could say this to himself. This last half an hour is wasted, I didn't see the point of it.

in any ways that movie doesn't deserve that after only 3 weeks you can see it on only 2 small screens in Paris... Please if you are in Paris at the moment rush to see it!

Some characters should be developed (the twins in particular) and I suppose they will be in the second part and I hope this huge commercial failure won't compromise the coming out of the next one

Lelouch is unique. you either hate or love him films, as his style is often composed of stories within stories, interactions, time leaps and even the participation of the spectator himself.

mostly all the people in the film are familiar faces in France. many of the interpreters here are not actors but friends of Lelouch. some are real life singers, journalists, comics and TV show hosts, even his wife and child have roles. for the french audience, it is easier to smile at the contrast between who they really are in real life, and who they play in the film.

all these features always add a very intimate tone to his films, where he strives to reach deeply into the human heart and... the human condition.

the reference to Victor Hugo at the beginning of the film is essential to it's understanding. i recommend the viewing of another film, his version of Hugo's "Les Misérables" very poignant, universal and timeless.

ultimately, he sees beauty in each and one of us, and elevates man, even the bum, the weak, the ugly, even the spirits (as is the tribute to his late friend Ticky Holgado).

God is a bum in this film. it goes to show that for Lelouch, a spirit of light stirs in all of us and that it can be found everywhere, especially in the most surprising places and moments. in some films he has depicted unfriendly characters such as nazi collaborators, tyrants, crooks and criminals. but they all have a soul, they are all human who once loved. man for Lelouch is essentially good. one recurrent message in his works would have to be : Compassion.

in "les Parisiens", first part of a trilogy, complex relationships and the pitfalls of love are the center of all the situations. if you're not used to Lelouch's style, you can get a little lost. but it's only a matter of training the eye and the ear... i do admit that this film is very French, and a French public will probably be more "in tune" with the mannerisms, eye expressions, body language and situations depicted.

thank you again, Monsieur Lelouch. and as always, thank you for the beautiful music*, an essential part in his films. always.

i recommend.

* non-stop from beginning to end. this by itself is a great reason to enjoy these 2 hours.

This is the first film by Claude Lelouche that I have ever seen, but it wasn't to my liking. Either it was way over my head, or it's a lemon. "Les Parisiens" is the collection of very loosely interwoven stories, but it is a far cry from Pasolini's "Decameron" or Robert Altman's "Short Cuts." Only in the second half of the story does the main thread emerge, the story of an Italian street singer (Massimo) who takes on a female shoplifter as his singing partner. They are invited to sing in a bar and enjoy some moderate success as a team. A record producer sees their act and offers the girl a recording contract. She is forced to decide to abandon Massimo and accept the recording contract or to turn it down. She decides to dump Massimo, and gains fame as a single act. Massimo is forced to go solo, but ends up a bigger success than his former partner. She regrets her decision and writes a book detailing her betrayal of Massimo. I found the story rambling, to the point where I dozed off during the first half, something I haven't done in a movie theater since "Peter Pan" when I was 5 years old. The characters all struck me as quite superficial and the story uncompelling. The film did get some applause at the end, and I heard a woman being filmed outside the cinema complex state that she loved the film. I'm glad I got a free ticket to see it because this way I didn't waste my money on it.

I haven't seen too many Lelouch films; A Man and A Woman but that doesn't really count because everybody saw it, and a couple of years ago And Now Ladies And Gentlemen ... which didn't do a lot for me. Somehow, though, I had high hopes for this one, a friend saw it at the Deauville festival and recommended it but it's been a disaster in Paris and disappeared after 4 weeks. It's the first part of a trilogy and though the second part is in the can Lelouch is making noises like that's where it'll stay and the third part is definitely on hold. Actually it's not as bad as all that. A tad discursive in the first hour where characters come and go, possibly to be developed in later segments but eventually we do focus on one story and perhaps unfortunately Lelouch has reached back to all those Hollywood musicals that crop up on TV fifty years after they were made. You know the type, two guys - or one guy and one gal - playing the sticks in vaudeville, then one night a Broadway producer comes backstage and says, 'you were great, kid; howja like to play the Paramount?', 'Sure, we'd love to'. 'Hold it right there, kid, I can't use the ACT, it's YOU I want'. Wherupon the loser half of the duo says, 'Go on, take it, don't be a sap; this is your big chance, don't worry about ME, I'll just start dating a fifth of bourbon and keep on til they find me dead in the gutter without a dime in my jeans, but YOU, you got it all ahead of you'. So help me that's what happens here, Italian street singer takes a young girl thief under his wing; they work the streets, progress to a club and then someone sees potential in the girl and it's bye, bye, mentor. But there's a twist, eventually, against the odds the guy becomes an even bigger star, the girl regrets what she did, they make a movie together, it's directed by, wait for it, Claude Lelouch. Hokey? Okay, Corny? Okay. Nevertheless ... I liked it. Sue me already.