Comparisons
between Philippe Garrel and Éric Rohmer were never completely inapt, because both
French filmmakers had a knack for uncomfortably intimate relationship dramas. Some
of us maybe didn’t realize it until now, but Garrel has completed a Rohmeresque
thematic trilogy exploring the darker emotions associated with love. In the Shadow of Women addresses lust,
whereas the subject of Jealousy is
announced up front. This time around, Garrel examines fidelity, something
cineastes probably considered to be positive and even laudable, at least before
we saw it as the focal point of a Garrel film. Garrel is very Garrelian, but it
is his daughter Esther rather than son Louis who co-stars in Lover for a Day (trailer here), which screens as a Main Slate selection
of the 55th New York Film Festival.
Having
been dumped by her boyfriend Mateo and evicted from his flat, Jeanne has no
choice but to seek shelter with her teacher father. However, she is rather
surprised to learn middle-aged Gilles is cohabitating with a student roughly
her own age. Initially, there is tension between Ariane and Jeanne, as they
resent any form of attention Gilles bestows on the other. Yet, slowly and
steadily, the two young women form a truce and share confidences. Ariane tries
to instill in Jeanne a more casual approach to love and sex, to counteract her
unhealthy fixation on Mateo. Given her sensitive temperament, it will be hard
for Jeanne to put her advice into practice, nor does it necessarily reflect
Gilles’ relationship notions.
Like
all of Garrel’s films, Lover is talky
rather than plotty, but like the best of them, there are some remarkably
resonant moments. Renato Berta’s lovely black-and-white cinematography greatly helps
evoke that late-night, soul-bearing vibe. Even when the characters are out and
about at high noon, the film still has a 2:00 feel to it.
Without
her famous brother to overshadow her, Esther Garrel really comes into her own as
Jeanne. It is not necessarily a “likable” performance, but it is uncomfortably
real and brittle, in a nakedly vulnerable kind of way. In her feature debut,
Louise Chevillotte’s work as Ariane is admirably complex and notably restrained.
Éric Caravaca’s Gilles is a suitably Garrel-ish, hypocritical man, but his
resemblance to the late Benoît Régent, co-star of Garrel’s grueling masterwork I Can No Longer Hear the Guitar, adds a
further element of eeriness.
We
do not really remember Jealousy and Shadow being pitched as part of trilogy
(thematic or otherwise), but they are easily retconned into a Rohmeresque
series of moral tales. They also happen to be particularly strong yet highly
representative Garrel films. Perhaps most significantly, the third film could
be remembered as the film in which Esther Garrel decisively staked her claim to
the family business. Recommended for fans of Garrel, Rohmer, and maybe even
Cassavetes, Lover for a Day screens
tomorrow (10/10) and Wednesday (10/11), as part of this year’s New York Film
Festival.
