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Just perfect...

Fantastic!

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The most notable feature of this film has to be the fact that it contains a rather remarkable gay love story. Yes, two men. This instantly explains the poor distribution of the film (above all in the US) which other reviewers seem to find baffling. Well, it's not perplexing at all: the prevailing judgment in the film distribution world in the United States is that anything containing male homosexuality is box office poison, offensive to Christians, etc. In fact, the Ismael/Erwann romance, the new love which resolves the protagonist's lost love, is strikingly inconspicuous in all the promotional material associated with "Les Chansons" - posters, images, cast list (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, who plays Erwann, is completely sidelined, though his character is as important as Ludivine Sagnier's). But clearly hiding Erwann and the gay theme from view didn't help: "Les Chansons" had to be hidden from the viewers altogether. It's nothing new where (male) gay content is concerned. As we know, getting "Brokeback Mountain" made and distributed was a long, wearying, obstacle-ridden business, and the film was deliberately snubbed at the Oscars. Similar difficulties attend every other film in which there is any representation of gay men doing what they do - i.e. making love to other men. In "Les Chansons" the problem is all the more acute, because one of the men doesn't seem to be gay at all ... so it appears that he chooses homosexual love.And this is one of the elements which make "Les Chanson" unique - it's unusual, to say the least, to encounter the implicit suggestion that a male character with heterosexual experience (documented in the film) might opt in favour of gay love. The two men in question also constitute an original, even startling combination - just as distinctive and unforgettable as the two lovers in "Brokeback".This is a beautiful and outstanding film, so it is good to see that 19 of the 24 reviews here (before mine) say that. But it's disturbing that even here on IMDb all 5 negative reviews (below) focus their disdain and hostility on the gay content. One reviewer details his "loathing", dismissing all the rest of us (who like the film) as gay, another calls the film "too gay", another attacks the "sleaze" and "downmarket sex". (There are even a few positive reviews here which go all nervous and jittery about the Ismael/Erwann romance.) Hmmmmmmm! This is the 21st century.Otherwise, "Les Chansons" is remarkable for its vision of Paris, especially the streets of Paris, and of course for ... les chansons. It is a most intriguing, off-beat form of musical - the way in which the actors utter their songs is very different from conventional "singing": to such a degree that one has to pay attention to note that they really ARE singing. But it is in fact real singing, and these are real songs. Songs of love, chansons d'amour.

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.

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.

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?