People have been complaining about new french films

Les chansons d’amour

They are right. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a good french film. I have liked “8 femmes” and I think that “Va Savoir” is great (even though it took me ages to finally see it), but recently? There was nothing. Is it because I am not such a rabid movie watcher anymore as I was 2-3 months ago? Or is it just that modern french films are bad objectively? (I remember having read some article on the Süddeutsche Zeitung awhile ago where somebody complained about this.)

How should I put it – normally I dislike musicals and like love stories. In this case, I have liked the songs of the musical but thoroughly disliked the love story, I wonder why. Considering how much I like “Jules et Jim” and other ménage à trois stories, it’s unusual for me to have disliked this one. Perhaps it’s because it didn’t touch me emotionally at all (despite the good music!) and because I didn’t find the main characters. I’m not a big fan of Jeanne Moreau either, but I found her great in “Jules et Jim”, so this cannot be the reason. I know at least that I have disliked parts of the cinematography – I really see absolutely no point to use those stills randomly.
Instead, I guess I’ll continue by comment on the songs of interest by going through them chronologically (which is also the order in which they are provided on the soundtrack).

First of all, the songs contribute to the storyline just like every good musical. However, despite the very clear voices it was not easy to always understand the french singing. So I had to read the horribly translated english subtitles and that probably dampened my viewing pleasure a lot. Ah, the world needs better translators! (But I am a horrible one myself.)

Another interesting thing about the songs is that every song that I ended up liking is featured in the official trailer that we have seen a few days in the Cinema Paris before. This reminded me a lot of “Good Bye Lenin” where the trailer was a summary of all the great scenes in the film, heh.

Before moving on, a little warning: These are sappy pop songs. I know that you guys all hate them =P

De bonnes raisons
At the very beginning of the film, La Sagnier and Louis Garrell start singing this while “dancing” through the night of Paris. It all looks very stylish and I must say that I find this song thoroughly charming. “Why do you love me?” is probably the most complex, dangerous and awkward question of all time, and the answers given in the song are just as beautiful as they are superficial. It was a great start into the film, I think. This also was one of the scenes I have found particularily nice in the trailer.

Inventaire
This is another one of those relationship songs, but this time, I don’t quite remember much of it. Don’t let yourself be fooled by my bad memory though, it’s still a nice song.

Je n’aime que toi
This is the only one that features the trio, I think, and thus also is the only one that touches the topic of the threesome. Actually, this is one of my favourites, the changes between the voices is nice. The only thing that I am not sure whether I should like it or not is that this “Mm-mm” makes me think of Annett Louisan, eek.

As-tu déjà aimé?
It’s the apple song, hohoho. Actually I think it was very clearly shown how the love between the boys feels purer and much more natural than the somewhat questionable threesome with the girls in which it was clear that they actually just hated each other and were unhappy. On top of that, the family comes into the picture all the time, ugh. Especially that sister! *dies* Louis Garrel is such a gay actor, hoho.
Back to the song, I think this was a sweet discourse about lasting vs. passionate and short love. The comparison with the apple is simple, but again, I find it very charming. In french, the lyrics sound really nice to me.

Les yeux au ciel
The trailer starts with this song, and I’d say it’s my absolute favourite although I probably listen to “Je n’aime que toi” more often. It has a nice dynamic and the accompagnement feels great.

J’ai cru entendre
Another relationship song to some degree. I never really paid attention to it, but it ends the film well in my opinion. After quite a number of uninteresting songs (even one involving the dreadful sister), this one has the charm of french chansons again. (I know that I keep using “charming”, but honestly there just is no better word to describe it. It’s the “interesting”-disease.)

Finally, the film will most likely stay in my memory because of the nice songs – and only because of the songs.