Love, etc.

Long a fan of French films (Eric Rohmer is my favorite director), I rented "Love, etc." with high hopes. I have often found that even the most superficial of French films have more to say about life and relationships than the best Hollywood product.

"Love, etc." proved to be an exception. It starts off promisingly, successfully capturing the dynamics of a long-term friendship and the awkward dance common at the beginning of relationships. But it soon degenerates into a story of three superficial, unlikable characters with hard-to-fathom motivations. There is little evidence of "love" and much exploration of "etc.". The self-congratulatory "aren't-we-civilized-and-modern" final scene only serves to cap off what is, on the whole, a truly bad French film.

A French adaptation of a Julian Barnes novel, this is a pretty basic and very tedious romantic triangle: when shy loser Yvan Attal hooks up with Charlotte Gainsbourg, his luck changes while his best friend Charles Berling's fortunes suffer reverses as he falls for her and bores passing strangers by telling them his hopes of how to win her. Unfortunately this seems to be by going for the Anakin Skywalker route of whining her into submission, as his tiresome self-pity gradually and inexplicably wins her over.

There are a few nice moments: a wedding photo in which all three reveal their innermost thoughts, one of Berling's captive confessors asking him "Don't you ever get tired of your bulls**t?" and Berling following his comparison of an affair being as unsatisfactory as a holiday in Marbella by his nervous rambling that "Actually, Marbella can be nice at this time of year. I went there once. It's best to go off season." Similarly, his dismissal of Leonard Cohen's genius by admitting he finds a lack of imagination in rhyming 'ay' with 'ay ay ay' neatly punctures Attal's tendency to play Cohen's waltz at every opportunity. Unfortunately they are few and far between, and Berling is astonishingly annoying here. You keep on waiting for someone to hit him, repeatedly (now there's an idea for a movie!), but it never happens. There is one great final confrontation when Attal confronts the two: his performance has real power here and the writing mirrors the ebb and flow and awkwardness of such moments. But it's not enough.

This is one of the funniest, saddest and most truely beautiful films I have ever seen. I watched this film several months ago in the Cambridge Arts Cinema and the memories of its wonder remain with me today. I took my boyfriend, who speaks no french, to see it, worried that he would be bored and frustrated by imposing subtitles and missing some of the very "frenchness" that brought the French government to insist on "l'exception culturelle" that makes French films so special to watch.

What a waste of anxiety! The two of us were spell bound throughout the whole performance. Attal, Gainsbourg and Berling's performances are gripping. The film is intense- filled with extremes of emotion. In the space of seconds the actors manage to plummet the audience from laughter to stunned silence as the plot unfolds. We are not witnesses to this story, we are able to involve ourselves deeply with the highs and lows of the action.

But it's not simply a well-acted and well written script that make this film compelling viewing. What I really love about french films is the way you can climb into the heads of the characters so well. I found myself fascinated by the transformation of Pierre (Attal) from the eternal bachelor to the devoted lover. His character literally takes the place that Benoit (Berling) occupied in the opening scenes. This transformation could have seemed clumsy, even unbelievable, but the subtlety of Attal's acting made it gripping and convincing to watch. Equally dramatic is the eruption of the quiet Benoit over dinner when he confronts Marie (Gainsbourg) and Pierre about their affair. Gainsbourg too, is very strong in the role of Marie, especially in her development of Marie's anger into love for Pierre.

What is essentially a sad story (a best friend running off with his best friend's wife and a wife who is torn in love for two very different men) is also very comical and even ends with that feeling that this is something very sad yet very beautiful. The real beauty of this film is its ending... which I shan't expand on for fear of ruining it for anyone who wants to see the film. I shall only say that these final scenes made me think about the entire film for hours, even days afterwards. I left the cinema truely spellbound by the magic that had been worked in the space of a couple of hours.

The soundtrack complements this film excellently and I recommend you buy the cd. I chased over London to find it and it is one of the best £17 pounds that I have ever spent. Music by Lenard Cohen, Pavarotti plus music written specially for the film follows the same intensive pattern of emotions that the film does.

If you make time to see one film, see this one. Even now I cannot stop thinking about the power and magic of it. My only regret is that I can't seem to find it on video in the UK as soon as I can, I shall "take this waltz" many times again.

"Love, etc." gently goes along like a modern version of Truffaut's "Jules & Jim"... It's a rather nice movie, well directed in a clean and polished way, quite sensitive and even touching at times... The best things about it are -no doubt- Charlotte Gainsbourg's inspired performance ("as always..." one might add), Yvon Attal's touching caracter, and an absolutely brilliant music score from Alexandre Desplat... The "not-so-good" things include a rather unconvincing and over-acted performance from Charles Berling, and the general feeling that the movie never really realises how gripping and emotional it could have been if it hadn't been so... hum... polished actually. Worth seeing though... PS : ...and now available in France on VHS, for you anonymous fan of this movie !!!