Search - Regular Lovers on DVD

Confirms Louis Garrel as a great actor.

Berlinale | NYC | 03/06/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I recently saw this at the Cinema Village in NYC and was stunned by this evocative, opium infused, gorgeous film.

Shot in stark black and white by the great William Lubtchansky, the film is a vivid evocation of a misunderstood golden age when young people thought they could change the world merely by taking to the streets. It's a powerful antidote to the insipid, uninspired THE DREAMERS, the film it's often compared to. A very personal Proustian reminiscence and a very public conjuring of ghosts, the film is simultaneously celebratory and melancholic. Given the right frame of mind, it's absolutely rapturous."

Regular Lovers in Revolutionary Times.

G. Merritt | Boulder, CO | 05/08/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Regular Lovers (Les amants réguliers) is a grainy (though visually stunning) black and white film directed by prolific New-Wave director Philippe Garrel, starring his talented son, Louis Garrel (Ma Mere; The Dreamers; Dans Paris; Les Chansons d'amour). Louis Garrell was awarded the 2006 Cesar Award for his performance in this film. Also of interest, his godfather is actor Jean-Pierre Léaud.

It is tempting to compare this film to Bernardo Bertolucci's earlier film, The Dreamers, and then to compare Louis Garrell's performances in each. Set during and after the 1968 student riots in Paris (in which director Philippe Garrel was an actual participant with his 35mm camera), the 3-hour (tiresome-at-times) epic tells the story of François (Garrell), a 20-year-old poet, who would rather smoke opium and talk revolution than throw a Molotov cocktail at the police. In the first hour of the film, the "Night of the Barricades," director Garrel and cinematographer William Lubtchansky visually capture the spirit of the Paris riots. (Despite the fact that movie takes place during the 1968 riots, in one scene, several characters are shown dancing to the 1970 Kinks' song, "This Time Tomorrow.") In the second half of the film, François tries to make sense of it all amidst a culture of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. He falls hopelessly in love with a beautiful, free-spirited sculptor named Lilie (Clotilde Hesme). When Lilie has sex with another man, François is forced to confront the nature of love. At one memorably educational point in the film, Lilie breaks the fourth wall, looks at the camera, and asks "Have you seen Before the Revolution? Bernardo Bertolucci." Got it. As a 1968 flashback, Regular Lovers succeeds in cutting through all the romantic mythology surrounding the Paris student riots. Louis Garrell is reason enough to see this film.

G. Merritt"