User reviews

I wonder why this gem of a film was released in secret, at least in the USA. I was literally dragged to see it by some friends - to whom I'll be eternally grateful. The film lives on its own with glances to the great Jacques Demy. Rains and umbrellas, songs and impossible love. Louis Garrel must be, by now, considered one of the greatest film presences of the new millennium. He is devastating and his relationship with the doomed Ludivine Sagnier has all the warmth and sexiness of the great romances. The entrance of the adorable Gregoire Leprince-Ruignet takes all our preconceptions and turns them around. This sensual coupling full of innocence has the power to seal a tragedy with love. I adored this movie and the makers should protest vigorously as the way the film was distributed in the United States.

I've been a fan of Louis Garrel ("The Dreamers") and Ludivine Sagnier ("Swimming Pool") for a few years now, so when I heard they were starring in a romance musical, I was really excited. "Les Chansons d'Amour" aka "Love Songs" met, actually exceeded, my expectations. The film is a gorgeous, sometimes poignant and subtly funny look at love and (straight, bisexual, homosexual) relationships in contemporary Paris. Its adorably improvised musical sequences, the beauty of the music and locations, the chemistry of the ensemble cast (Chiara Mastroianni, who looks a lot like her father, the late Marcello Mastroianni, delivers a captivating performance as Sagnier's sister), all add up to the enchanting final result. This is the third film director Christophe Honoré makes with Louis Garrel (after 'Ma Mère' and 'Dans Paris'), and they announced a sequel for 2011. I will definitely check it, but it will be hard to top "Love Songs", since it ended perfectly in my eyes. Whether the sequel will disappoint or not is another story; for now, just enjoy the real gem that these chansons are... "love me less, but love me a long time". 10/10.

Paris, romance, love songs, and maybe a little Pedro Almodovar mixed in.

Love Songs is just that - fourteen love songs, all very beautiful, probably available on You Tube, tied together with some dialog.

I'm not impressed with Louis Garrel, but maybe I am not supposed to be.

It is Ludivine Sagnier (Paris, je t'aime, Swimming Pool, 8 femmes) that sets my heart a flutter, whether she is singing or discussing the intricacies of three-way sex with her mum. No, there is no sex in the film, it's a romance.

Clotilde Hesme is the third member of the menage a trois.

Part 1 ended in a manner that I did not expect in a romantic film.

Everything changed after the tragedy and a sadness came over the film as people struggled to find love and deal with loss.

It was all about the music, however, and, in that sense, it was a good film.

How to put into words a film with this sensorial density? It's clearly not the simplest task. "Congratulations Christophe Honoré" could be a good approach, maybe the best.

As a Portuguese, a traditional nation in the "European standards", I may say that this film surpasses my bounds when speaking of, let's say, "relational experimentalism". Even so, I found it astoundingly beautiful and I guess that picking-up the gay issue would be to diminish a film about life and what we make of it in our nowadays living.

To have lived in France for over a year, eventually helped me out to remark some interesting French particularities in the characters.

I found the humor in this film to be typically French. There's a scene were Ismael is Wrapping a pillow making a baby of it, asking everybody in the room to remain silent not to wake up the child that had just gotten asleep. Then, unexpectedly, he throws the "baby" right out of the window as he gets tired of the staging. This kind of uncompromising performances, risking the ridiculous, were undoubtedly a "déjà vu" for me.

The music is also a key element in the film and gives it a Parisian melancholical aura. The music is often used by 2 or more characters in the form of a dialog where they show their feelings and points of view. As they sing, the scenes are incredible well filmed either outdoor, in the endless avenues of Paris, or indoor in the cosiness of a warm bed in a cold winter night. Sometimes I felt as I was one of the characters right in the scene.

The anguish, the indecision and above all, the solitude are the marking subjects in a film that exposes in a crude manner how individualistic the society is becoming in France, and why not, in Europe.

It's a contemporary (timeless?) film about human relationships. In my opinion, the antithesis of the blockbuster cinema: The extravagance is replaced by beauty, the free nudity is replaced by sensuality and the easy laugh is avoided. The dialogs are intelligent, complex and they have ambiguous interpretation.

At the end of the movie, a phrase synthesizes it all: "Love me less but for a long time".

To assume the compromise revoking the emotional hurricane brought by fleeting relations will bring peace, at last.

I wish I could see this film at least another 3 or 4 times, before making this comment, but I can't wait telling the world (ah ah) how much I loved it! This film is a huge and wonderful homage to a great deal of things. 'Great things' such as love, life, death... and more 'minor things' (?) such as youth, friendship, music, Paris, actors and actresses, directors such as Stanley Donen, Jacques Demy, etc. And still, this film manages to stay incredibly fresh, new, full of veiled references (I couldn't help smiling with delight, when seeing Chiara Mastroianni under her transparent umbrella, a reference to her mother, Catherine Deneuve, in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg). And the film goes on like that, like on a tight rope, with actors perched on their frail voices, never ridiculous, always moving and/or witty. It keeps moving (never a dull moment) and it keeps moving you. Never vulgar, never cheap, never shocking. A marvel of lightness. Could it be the unbearable lightness of what we call life?

In the running for the Palme d'Or in last year's Cannes Film Festival, Love Songs by Christophe Honore was nothing like what the writeup used in the festival synopsis would have let you believe. Either that, or I'm really dense to have trusted what was essentially a verbatim recap of only the first of three segments that this movie was split into – Departure, Absence and Return.

Rather than dwell on the non-existent and off screen manège-a-trios, it's more of a tale of grief and the handling of grief after personal tragedy. It seemed like an exploration of venturing into the extremes, of being experimental for the sheer thrill of it, of trying to lead a vastly different lifestyle in other to drown all memories of the deceased, of numbing oneself in excessive, meaningless sex. I would have welcomed the viewpoints of family members in depth, as the movie did spend some time to set up those characters, only to have relegated them with sideshow treatment, nothing more than caricatures from parents who try to engage their child's friends in order to discover hidden secrets unknown to them, to siblings who hang around trying to come to grips with the loss, only to find some questionable , eyebrow raising antics leading to assumptions and quick conclusions.

As a musical, the songs did feel a little out of place when the characters start to break into them, and seriously, I thought the lyrics could have been lost in translation, as sometimes I could not see how they either move the narrative forward, or speak from the heart the innermost thoughts from the characters mouthing those words. At some points it really felt a little bit forced, and have left one wondering about the relevance of those phrases sung, so while the meaning have probably been lost in me, it might be of relevance to French speakers.

While the movie stars Louis Garrel, Ludivine Sagnier and Clotilde Hesme, the bulk of the screen time belonged to Garrel's Ismael. The threesome relationship between their characters weren't exactly explained, only that they are strange bedfellows sharing their nights together. While Sagnier's Julie did reveal her uneasiness at such an arrangement, Hesme's Alice already knows of the boundaries within their relationships that she cannot cross, and as they toy around those forbidden lines, any sense of angst and unhappiness get sung away quite fleetingly.

In short, it's a film that lacked some crucial emotional punch, preferring to just scratch the surface and try to get away with it. Definitely trying to appeal to the niche crowd with its dalliances with hetero/lesbian/gay themes, but ultimately, came across as very forced and pretentious, trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole, if you can pardon the pun. Disappointing stuff.

In my part of the USA, it is rare to come across a film like this. It makes no attempt to compromise its Parisian point of view for American audiences. This film allows an American audience the chance to get a glimpse from the perspective of the contemporary French young adult. There are plenty of French geographic and political reference to confuse, but they, like the Parisian scenes, just give the film its identity.

Others have provided detailed synopses of the story. I would rather you just take it as it comes and enjoy how different the plot development is. As a matter of fact, watch this film and try to appreciate how different it is from the ordinary American fare…no simple boy meets girl romance here. These beautiful people aren't young, chic urbanites wearing designer clothes they can't afford, living in apartments featured in Architectural Digest. We have three young women (Ludivine Sagnier, Clotilde Hesme, and Chiara Mastroianni) who lack the assistance of a personal shopper or a Beverly Hills stylist, but do not lack beauty or sensuality. Also, as a 59 year old man, I have to mention Brigitte Roüan, who shows how attractive a French grandmother can be. The men are similarly attractive. Louis Garrel demonstrates why he is currently the hottest actor in France. Newcomer Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet is disarmingly charming.

But this is a musical. You will find no potential American Idols here. The actors are not going to dazzle you with vocal gymnastics. The numbers have no clever arrangements or over produced orchestration. You have evocative lyrics set to a score reminiscent of US folk music in the 1960s or more exactly, French coffee houses. One word of caution, the English subtitles are quite misleading at times. My college French is a little rusty, but a review of the French subtitles gave me an appreciation of how descriptive the lyrics are.

Finally, there is no gratuitous violence or nudity, but look for the number Ma Memoire Sale (My Soiled Memory), where Ismael begs to be cleansed of the painful memory of his lost love. Some may be shocked at the scene, but you can't deny the passion and pain that permeates the number.

I have downloaded the soundtrack and ordered the DVD for this is like a good French dish, an experience to linger over.

I'm not sure that even at their most downbeat, Messrs Kretzmer, Boublil & Schönberg could have thought of singing about grey skies raining down thousands of needles - and they were talking about the French Revolution! Anyway, that's the type of lyric written for this quirkily entertaining story that starts with three in a bed. "Ismaël" (Louis Garrel), his girlfriend "Julie" (Ludivine Sagnier) and her friend "Alice" (Clotilde Hesme). That doesn't go so well, indeed life for "Ismaël" generally takes a turn for the worst when tragedy strikes and everyone has to make some practical and emotional adjustments to their lives. As time passes, though, the green shoots of recovery start to emerge - but not where anyone expects them. That's largely down to the enthusiastic "Erwann" (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet) who takes this complex but amusing look at the nature of human relationships full circle. Most of the musical numbers don't translate so well into English - the scanning and rhymes can sound a bit contrived, but the gist is there as the songs infill the narrative with some quite emotionally charged scenarios played out amidst the scenery of Paris. It can be cheesy at times, but it's essentially a story about the resilience of the human spirit to reboot and find new love where an old one has gone. Garrel is on good form here, some of his facial expressions just have to be seen as his character attempts to muddle through determined not to take the more obvious routes to happiness - despite himself, half the time. It's not deep and meaningful, but there are some salient points to be taken about grief and rejuvenation - and I did like the ending.

Just out of the theatre, I would like to share my impressions about "Les Chansons d'Amour".

This movie is a rare jewel which is even more precious as France is changing so quickly at the moment. It reminds us that, at the end of the day, we are the only ones able to chose our own lives if not death. Actors and actresses are just perfect. Brigitte Rouan and Chiara Mastroiani in particular make you believe in a very vivid way that this French family exists somewhere.

I don't want to say anything about the storyline which is so moving. I began to cry at the first picture in black and white which... but I'd better stop right here.

I'm glad I bought the cd, I'm going to listen to it all evening.

I am so happy that such a movie exists.

Thank you (again) Christophe Honoré.

A typically powerful French film proving France as a great film making country! It is a dark comedy, with an intriguing structure...variously sad, funny and bizarre in equal measures. Some have described it as a musical comedy. It is not!

Intelligently choreographed performances from Louis Garrel as the central character, Ismael, from Ludivine Sagnier as his girlfriend Julie, from Clotilde Hesme as Alice, the third character in the love triangle. Chiara Mastroianni puts in a strong performance as Julie's sister, Jeanne.

Lovely images of grey, wintery Paris thanks to Rémy Chevrin; songs I want to hear again; memorable images of confused emotions and allegiances, and like Amelie,Delicatessen or Caché, it will stay with me a long time.

Brilliant, thanks Christophe!

A perfect blend of playfulness, joy, sexuality and complete and utter tragedy. All of this is weaved in through the story and, more importantly, the songs themselves. The actors expertly portray every moment of it all, pouring their hearts into the songs whether it's a bouncy battle between two lovers with another lover in between or a lonely sister wishing for just one more hour of hope. I don't want to spoil a really big moment that provides all of that tragedy, but something happens relatively early on that floored me. Louis Garrel is an excellent lead and portal into all of these different people, and the supporting cast rounds everything off without missing a beat. The beautiful Ludivine Sagnier, the heartfelt Chiara Mastroianni and one of the most gorgeous women I've ever seen, Clotilde Hesme, are all brilliant. It swept me off my feet practically right off the bat and kept me floating throughout the whole thing. A fantastic movie, one of my favorites of '08 and of all time, for that matter.

This is one of my favourite movies. I watched it several times with my friends. I listen to its soundtrack all the time and Louis Garrel has a lovely voice with a husky tone. Movie is happy and sad and funny with its awkward moments. Watch it on a cold winter night and let the love warm up your soul.

Another film where it's best not to know too much about it. It is a musical - the music is a bit dated at this point (2020), but if you relate it back to the mid 2000s, it will make sense . Suffice it to say that Louis Garel is probably at his most charming, the women are excellent, the younger teenage character is acted perfected, the music is very French (quirky, lyrics that an English speaking audience might scratch their head at), but it is actually perfect, very real, very raw, not polished and the arc of the story and the character development will probably affect you profoundly if you have any romanticism in you. Somewhat surprising twists in the way that a young person's life often takes. I was deeply affected the first time I saw this and have come back to the film several times over the last 10 years, each time loving it as much as the first viewing. A film to be cherished.

I just saw myself in the film as "Erwann" and discovered how the director successfully depicted homosexuality in such a pure and romantic way. Not putting "love" any borders is really the strongest part of the film. Ludivine Sagnier is the strongest candidate for being the new Catherine Deneuve of France. I think the new stars of France are Ludivine Sagnier and Benoit Magimel. Thanks to French cinema for having such nice actors, actresses, directors and producers. But I just waited a popular love song which all the world knows among all these epique ones. Another concern of mine is about the cross-cultural roleplaying experiences of French actors and actresses. They exist generally in French oriented films. I just want to see all these players co-playing with other countries' roleplayers and directors too.