L'amant d'un jour

An exploration of love and fidelity tied with a gloomy but humorous feeling.

At first sight, the interesting plot about relationships of new Gilles's mistress and his daughter seems original, but since the third shot the intrigue becomes predictable. Because of the weak dramatic structure, the film is sluggish. The story is clear. A philosophy professor named Gilles (Éric Caravaca) has a relationship with Ariane (Louise Chevillotte), who is one of his students. Gilles' daughter, Jeanne (Esther Garrel), moves in to live with them after being kicked out of her boyfriend's apartment. Later, we find out that Ariane is attracted to young men and she also was shot for the cover of porn magazine. One of the strangest things that Gilles and Jeanne does not understand who Ariane is. In my opinion, the actress so badly pretends to be a wolf in sheep's clothing, that her heinous character is obvious from the very beginning. There is one positive thing, it is an idea, that false love helps father to establish relations with his daughter. And thanks to negative example of Ariane's behavior, Jeanne and her boyfriend made up and started to appreciate each other. The fuzzy and weak conflict is over like that way. It is not clear what happens in Ariane's soul when she says to Gilles and Jeanne that she loves them both. Furthermore, it is not clear what happens in souls of all characters at this film. The climax is too vague, we also watch as Ariane has sex with another young man. And what conclusion should we draw from this? It is not the first time. The scene like that we saw at least twice before, so it is not surprised us at all. As for director of photography work, it is very simple. The shots are flat without any perspective and depth. The mise en scenes are not built well, big close-ups are not always well connected with previous frames. It may seem, that the editor did not have enough time to make image on the screen more technical quality. The color score, perhaps, must help us to believe in this story and must give us an opportunity to perceive it more reliably. And that's the whole idea! I suppose, that it would have been better if the director had spent more time working with actors than on pondering the color rendition of the film. To sum up, the idea of the film lies on the surface, and the director's conception is too simple for the quality artistic expression.

The French film L'Amant d'un jour was shown in the U.S. with the translated title Lover for a Day. It was co-written and directed by Philippe Garrel.

This movie has an interesting concept. Jeanne is a young woman who is kicked out of her boyfriend's apartment. She has nowhere to go, so she ends up at her father's apartment. No problem, except that her father is living with a young woman named Ariane, who is about Jeanne's age. It's interesting that Jeanne is played by Esther Garrel, who is director Garrel's daughter.

The two women get along well enough, and, except for a very dramatic scene, not much happens in the movie. It's very French. For, example, Ariane goes to the boyfriend's apartment to pick up Jeanne's belongings. She and the boyfriend have a very polite conversation, and they end up saying goodbye with the French double kiss. Characters in a U.S. film wouldn't be that casual and polite in that situation. Apparently it works in France.

We saw this film at the wonderful Dryden Theatre in Rochester's George Eastman Museum. It's a privilege to have a theater that shows a retrospective series of films by a French director who's not exactly a household name in the U.S.

Sadly, we just couldn't get into Garrel's style of filmmaking. The staff who introduce the films go on and on about his talent, but my wife and I weren't impressed. Maybe you do, indeed, need to be French to appreciate Garrel.

Almost all of the action in this film takes place indoors, so the movie will work well on the small screen.

P.S. The movie is loaded with sex. For better or for worse, most of the coupling takes place with the man and woman standing up in lavatories that are only semi-private. Not a great basis for eroticism.

About love and sex affairs, and also other intimate relations, all of them mostly dysfunctional (but realistic). In beautiful black and white cinematography.

It's tells a story, a statement or whatever you take. There is no blank or wrong plot or something like that with had nowadays movies. In a good flow, i saw a beautiful characters and good performances. I really enjoyed watching it.