Coeurs
“Coeurs” is a lot like “On connait la chanson”, but very much unlike “On connait la chanson”, “Coeurs” actually made me laugh a few times. The film has a few delightful, ironic elements that just make me snicker almost involuntarily. Perhaps I also liked this film more because it didn’t have Agnès Jaoui in it – for some reason I don’t tend to like films with her, and it certainly is not because I dislike her as an actress. Maybe she is… unlucky?
In any event, “Coeurs” is marvelously funny. I love how all the characters are intertwined in some confuse network (Thierry works for Nicole, who is seeing Dan, and works with Charlotte, who takes care of Lionel’s father, but the same Lionel is the favorite barkeeper of Dan who meets Gaelle, Thierry’s sister), yet at the same time some of them never meet. The premise is quite wonderful (though it is not Resnais’s) and the execution is splendid. I love the bird’s eye shots which remind you of a theater, and the many small scenes with 1-to-1 dialogues, also reminiscent of theater, but especially so of Schnitzler’s “Reigen”.
At the same time, the film is really not all that funny. Similar to most Resnais films, the end is never happy and the overall topic of the film – emotional solitude – does not quite seem to allow a truly funny films. There is one scene in which Lionel, clearly the most miserable character amongst all of them, tells Charlotte about his back story, and I thought my heart was going to burst. It’s immensely sad, but even more so it was annoying. You never really learn anything about the characters – there is a separation between us and those characters just like there is one between the characters themselves.
All in all, besides the occasional depressing scene, I really like the film and the handicraft that came with it. Really, Resnais changed so damn much over the years. How did he turn from “Nuit et brouillard” to “On connait la chanson” or this movie? Is it really Sabine Azéma’s influence? (That would not surprise me, she appears to be a fascinating, strong woman.) In any case, I am not complaining. I really want to see “Les herbes folles” now.