Watch Loulou For Free

Highly Overrated But Still Good

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

What is the attraction for a bourgeois woman that makes her leave her world in exchange of an uncertain future? Boredom, plain and simple, or so it seems what makes Nelly, a woman who has a good life with Andre, her husband, an advertising executive, throw all away when she meets Loulou. He is a petty criminal living a marginal life, but who brings a new excitement to the life of this Parisian woman.One has seen this theme exploited before. Yet, director Maurice Pialat spun a different angle in a relationship between two people from opposite sides of society. The film is more about style than substance, as one is taken to the world of Loulou, a man that has not amounted to much, yet, he has a magnetic effect on Nelly. It is basically a story in which Nelly awakens to sensual situations she never felt with Andre. The film gives the viewer a glimpse of that particular period in Paris. It has a feeling of having been largely improvised, or that was probably the idea behind the screenplay by Mr. Pialat and Arlette Langmann, which takes the viewer into that milieu.The main reason for watching the film are the two stars: Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Huppert, two of the brightest stars at an excellent point in their film careers. There is magnetism in their scenes as well as sexual explicitness. Guy Marchand appears as Andre, the husband who must accept his wife's decision in abandoning their marriage.

This is the pathetic story of a woman who leaves her well-off and educated husband for Loulou (Gerard Depardieu), an unemployed ex-con. The storyline doesn't deviate much from this premise outside of a few interesting anecdotes here and there, and the rest of the film is spent on depicting the interactions between the characters.So why does this simple film deserve eight stars? In my opinion, it's because Pialat has focused his attention on a single element that dominates all aspects of its development: realism. Characters depicted are paradoxical and confused, just as many people are when it comes to love and relationships. There is no soundtrack to distract the viewer. Perhaps most interesting of all is the way the film is written and acted; every line seems spontaneous, not scripted and polished. Because of this, the film really succeeds in the impression that you really are looking through a window into people's lives. It's all great cinema; the techniques used in this film really should be used more frequently.Make no mistake, though: this is an actor's film. All three of the leads are equally brilliant. We can feel the raw emotion when one of them make a sudden outburst, though we may not always understand their motivations. This movie certainly would not have been the same without them.I recommend this film to anyone who enjoys art-house cinema.

Well-made but basically dreary low-life melodrama which, according to the accompanying interview with lead Isabelle Huppert, writer/director Pialat infused with a good deal of autobiographical detail; given the mainly unsympathetic characters involved, it doesn't do him any compliments - and he does seem to have been a troubled man, as Huppert also says that Pialat often disappeared for days on end during the shoot! The acting is uniformly excellent, however; despite their relatively young age, Huppert and co-star Gerard Depardieu (as the title character!) were already at the forefront of modern French stars - a status which, with varying degrees of success, they both still hold to this day.I have 3 more of Pialat's films in my "VHS To Watch" pile, albeit all in French without English Subtitles; due to this fact but also LOULOU'S oppressive realism - in spite of its undeniable artistic merit - I can't say that I'm in any particular hurry to check them out now...

Given the exhaustive and thoughtful review by the previous poster, I won't be redundant. This movie contains one of the best lines I've ever heard: As Nelly rides away with LouLou on his motorcycle, Andre poutfully spouts (rough english) "But you can't discuss books with him!"; Nelly replies "I don't discuss books, I read them!".Priceless.