Les idoles

This sounds irresistible: A rare cinematic outing from an avant-garde French stage director, spoofing the world of pop stardom at the peak counterculture moment of 1968, with lots of parodic songs and crazy psychedelic fashions. Like the same year's French political superhero spoof "Mr. Freedom," however, "Les idoles" is far more appealing in description (and in excerpt) than as an exhausting, broad, shrilly one-note satirical whole.

Pierre Clementi (not normally a huge favorite of mine) really throws himself into the part of a posturing-rebel-style rock star, and is the only principal here whose singing voice (which may well have been dubbed by another performer) is musically passable. Bulle Ogier and the other guy do caricatures of bad singing that grow tiresome fast. Some of the songs are just brief and/or forgettable goofs. But some of them are also quite good, even as they (and the lyrics) send up yeye and other then-recent European pop trends.

But there's almost no story here. The leads are introduced as three solo pop superstars who've "teamed up" as an act, albeit probably just to shore up their suddenly flagging careers. They simply perform and talk about themselves in front of a studio audience, with the interspersed flashbacks showing their cartoonish individual pasts. They're painted as somewhat vacuous, yet occasionally resistant to their handlers' image-molding. That feeds the only real plot point: Eventually Clementi and Ogier are announced as getting married, but it turns out that's a publicity stunt they don't really want to go through with. Finally the film just jerks to a halt, via the little spasm of gratuitous, not-at-all-realistic violence that was practically required for any movie aspiring towards "relevance" and "meaning" at this point in time.

As humorous celluloid takes on pop-music culture from the era go, "Les idoles" is unfortunately closer to "The Phynx" (another movie that sounds like it CAN'T be anything but a riot, until you actually watch it) than "Head," though I suppose it's a mercy that it isn't pretentiously serious in its exposure of the starmaking machinery's soulnessness like "Privilege." Despite the high energy level, occasionally enjoyable music/performances, fun costumes and sets etc., however, it's not cinematically inventive or tonally varied enough to avoid wearing out its welcome pretty fast. This is one of those movies that you start out being delighted by...then not so many minutes later, you can hardly wait for it to end.

This is to my knowledge the very first film of indie actress Bulle Ogier, who was part, along with Pierre Clémenti and Jean-Pierre Kalfon, of the original cast for the play "Les idoles", which inspired this film. A film that is a tasteful blend between a stage happening and a musical. Marc'o, then a stage veteran who was directing his first feature, was a visionary, as he had grasped most of what the cult of youth idols such as pop-stars was all about: a very fertile ground for business and cynicism. Gigi la folle, the wrongly innocent sweet blonde played by Bulle Ogier, was inspired by pop singer France Gall, whereas Charlie le surineur, played by a wild Pierre Clémenti, is more or less Johnny Hallyday, a supposed natural-born rebel, i n fact a totally artificial marketing produce. As for Jean-Pierre Kalfon, the last of the idols, he plays a dishevelled and mystic palm reader turned into a frantic singer, a compromise between the Beatles under their indian period and a bunch of psychedelic bands such as they existed then. The three of them dance and sing all along like roaring lions, giving a very impressive performance of raw pop power. Although their voice qualities are not the strong point of the film, the music is rich and varied, ranging from quiet ballad to over-the-top kick-on-stage dance routines.

The portrait Marc'o gives of the french youth on the eve of May 1968 is of a world seething in unrest, reading supposed rebellion orders on the lips of their teen idols. In that way, Les idoles is a political point of view about the power of the media and music over the consciences. All this in bright and wonderful colors, psychedelic interiors, a visual world close to the world of the series "The Prisoner". A great film, a very intelligent witness of its time.

I have no idea why such talented actors such as Kalfon, Ogier and Clementi got involved in this total mess of a film. Jean-Pierre Kalfon and Bulle Ogier went on to make Rivette's ' L'Amour Fou ' which in my opinion is a masterpiece, and Pierre Clementi should always be remembered for his outstanding roles in Luis Bunuel's ' Belle de Jour ' and Pasolini's ' Pigsty. ' But this modish nonsense was unworthy of them, and it has nothing to do with the best of the Nouvelle Vague at all; if anything it seems to mock that fine time in French Cinema when the camera took to the streets and produced quite a few great films. For those who are blind to the Nouvelle Vague's ambitions, I do partly agree that style very often replaced content and ignored many burning issues of the time, and was as equally homophobic and misogynist as the cinema that went before it. Sadly in this film the actors have to be ' idols ' of the time, which for the most part was grotesque and very ugly to watch. The ending is one of the worst I have seen in cinema, and I watched this on YouTube where it can now be seen and for many will be a pleasure. In my opinion it is a disaster and the fact that it came out in 1968 in a time of such turmoil makes it look even more facile and absurd.

This is exactly the kind of movie the Nouvelle Vague made possible.Probably inspired by some aspects of Godard's notorious "Masculin/Feminin",it represents all that I hate in the French cinema.

Probably inspired by real-life "teenage idols" ,these three pitiful "singers" make the viewer turn a deaf ear to the music they play and sing (which is some kind of parboiled cross between a poor man's Velvet Underground -and I like this group- and histrionic vocals).

To be successful,such a movie demands precision -what the Rutles did with the Beatles,for instance-,a great sense of humor , a rebellious mind devoid of clichés (the only moment that politically succeeds is Charlie's problems with the draft;during those precious minutes,I did think the movie was going somewhere).

The French "teenage idols" period was the early sixties .The 1962-1965 was the "yeah yeah" boys and girls heyday.Although some of them survived, from 1966 onwards ,some real artists (Jacques Dutronc,Julien Clerc,Michel Polnareff) began to emerge .Charlie is a distant relative of Johnny Halliday,but Gigi does not look like France Gall ,Serge Gainsbourg's Lolita.And it's an insult to mention the Beatles as far as Simon is concerned.There is also a hint at "Soeur Sourire" ,who hit the US charts as "the singing nun" in 1964.Proof positive that the story belongs to the first half of the sixties.

All the actors overplay .Pierre Clementi could have been a good thespian,had he had more Bunuel and Deville (and less so -called avant-garde);Bulle Ogier is, depending on whom you ask , either sublime or atrociously unbearable ,some kind of female Jean-Pierre Leaud.Jean-Pierre Kalfon is more restrained,be he blessed just for that.

Les Idoles : a relic , a failed spoof; take Watkins's "Privilège" instead.