L'homme fidèle [A Faithful Man] (Louis Garrel, 2018)

Discussions of specific films and franchises.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

L'homme fidèle [A Faithful Man] (Louis Garrel, 2018)

#1 Post by domino harvey » Thu Jun 27, 2019 3:44 pm

I'm still not entirely comfortable with the fact that I like Louis Garrel now, but I must begrudgingly admit his winning streak for me continues with his latest directorial work, L'homme fidèle, a nice Woody Allen-esque throwback that unexpectedly plays out as a lowkey romantic comedy given the premise: Garrel's pregnant girlfriend dumps him for his best friend and then wants to get back together years later when the friend dies. Also there's Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis' unbelievably beautiful daughter (and a walking Baby Maker app result) Lily-Rose Depp as the dead man's sister who's harbored a long crush on Garrel. Depp's story-line pays off early with a great joke that somehow finds a new gag in the stalest of narrative crutches, the flashback:
SpoilerShow
wherein she walks us through an important moment from her past and we see Depp doing the action before she stops the flashback and self-corrects that "Wait, I was younger then" and we see the little girl version of Depp's character do the same act. Wonderful!
At a little over 70 minutes, the film never has a chance to overstay its welcome and so its small charms are sustained at-length.

User avatar
dda1996a
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2015 6:14 am

Re: The Films of 2019

#2 Post by dda1996a » Thu Jun 27, 2019 5:07 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Thu Jun 27, 2019 3:44 pm
I'm still not entirely comfortable with the fact that I like Louis Garrel now, but I must begrudgingly admit his winning streak for me continues with his latest directorial work, L'homme fidèle
Why so? Never really understood the antipathy towards him

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: The Films of 2019

#3 Post by domino harvey » Thu Jun 27, 2019 5:14 pm

I had an irrational annoyance with him based on some early roles, but nothing that really holds up to scrutiny now, especially since he's currently delivering such consistently laudable work

User avatar
dda1996a
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2015 6:14 am

Re: The Films of 2019

#4 Post by dda1996a » Thu Jun 27, 2019 5:23 pm

I know it's not a well loved film, but all three actors in The Dreamers left an inedible mark on my heart that took Eva Green a lot of shitty movies to soil (and Pitt has sort of managed to keep)


User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: L'homme fidèle [A Faithful Man] (Louis Garrel, 2018)

#6 Post by knives » Wed Dec 11, 2019 6:58 pm

I'm not sure what's more impressive: this film or that Carriere is still pounding out these masterpieces after all these years. The script is a real masterwork of tone and structure that also has a number of simply hilarious on its face jokes. The direction and performances are also superb playing things in a matter of fact way that makes the playing with tone all the more effective.

The film begins like a Rohmer homage with a slight de Oliveira touch for flavour before let loose high flying plot points ensuring a radical tone that had me laughing at myself.
SpoilerShow
I'm particularly thinking of the first scene between Garrel and Joseph being interrupted by Marianne having me look at her with suspicion and then burst out laughing that I'd believed this boy I have no connection to. It's a perfect little moment that really shows the film's strengths.
It's a charming little film that in a just world would be getting a ton of year end discussion.

User avatar
zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: L'homme fidèle [A Faithful Man] (Louis Garrel, 2018)

#7 Post by zedz » Wed Dec 11, 2019 7:52 pm

knives wrote:
Wed Dec 11, 2019 6:58 pm
I'm not sure what's more impressive: this film or that Carriere is still pounding out these masterpieces after all these years. The script is a real masterwork of tone and structure that also has a number of simply hilarious on its face jokes.
This prompted me to look at just how wide-ranging his collaborations have been over the years: Etaix, Buniuel, Malle, Franco, Deray, Forman, Ferrari, Berlanga, Chereau, Schlondorff, Godard, Saura, Wajda, Brook, Oshima, Babenco, Wang, Glazer, Haneke, Kiarostami, Garrel (x2). And a half-dozen of those represent extended collaborations over a decade or more. He wasn't always there for their best work (-cough- Max mon amour), but the man certainly gets around.

And did anybody know that he directed a French remake of Harold and Maude?

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: L'homme fidèle [A Faithful Man] (Louis Garrel, 2018)

#8 Post by knives » Wed Dec 11, 2019 8:18 pm

Yeah, I've only seen a small bit of his output, but it sometimes feels like a right of passage for a European director to work with him.

User avatar
zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: L'homme fidèle [A Faithful Man] (Louis Garrel, 2018)

#9 Post by zedz » Wed Dec 11, 2019 9:02 pm

knives wrote:
Wed Dec 11, 2019 8:18 pm
Yeah, I've only seen a small bit of his output, but it sometimes feels like a right of passage for a European director to work with him.
I must admit, I'd thought he'd worked with Angelopoulos and Ruiz for some reason. He also gets a credit on De Oliveira's Belle Toujours, but I don't think that really counts.

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: L'homme fidèle [A Faithful Man] (Louis Garrel, 2018)

#10 Post by knives » Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:26 am

That last one's definitely the one that surprises me. They seem weirdly sympatico for reasons I can't find words for.

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: L'homme fidèle [A Faithful Man] (Louis Garrel, 2018)

#11 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Jan 25, 2020 12:01 am

I thought this was just incredible. It played for me like a different spin on The Baxter where Garrel is a passive, uninteresting extra who becomes the center of a narrative inexplicably to himself, wanted or thought about by all these characters as he repeatedly tries to find his footing. There’s Depp’s romantic and sexual preoccupations, the son’s obsessive resentment, and his old flame returning (and admitting that the previous rejection was not personal in the most ridiculous explanation that could be tragic if the tone wasn’t drawn so well, partially thanks to Garrel’s deadpan monotony). These intrusive plot developments continuously disrupt his banal routine of sleeping through life to awaken a sense of self, of foreign process to himself, often exhibited through the funniest expressions of paranoia
SpoilerShow
(from the odd glances as the waitress cryptically shakes her head as he orders to the little boy’s seed-planting of a murder-mystery conspiracy). In fact the whole movie is basically a narrative conspiracy, to make this apathetic invisible character a participant in life: Depp stalking him, Maryann altering his life with a coin flip, Joseph manipulating him in the craziest of ways..
The genius of this film is that the plot in theory subscribed to what most movies are but this is one that knows the rules of the game so well and flips the ideas around on its own characters (and the audience with intelligent in-jokes, such as the one domino mentions in his spoilerbox) to create a unique self-reflexive work of narrative and characterization that pokes fun at the artificiality of cinema while remaining empathic to humanity, grounding the film away from a tilt into farce or satire.

Post Reply