Regular Lovers

Black and white, 35 mm
France, 2005, 178 min
Section: Visions of Seven - Youth through the Eyes of French Filmmakers

Synopsis

For almost three hours, a black-and-white static camera pans up close to a group of young men and women. There is nothing to distract the lens, since the large majority of the scenes take place in several flats, whose walls seem to symbolise the isolation of the heroes and their confinement within dogmatic political debates. It is 1968, barricades are being erected on the streets of Paris, and all the characters we follow are involved in skirmishes with the police; they are dissatisfied with their lives and believe in the liberating force of revolution. They compare Jesus and Mao and ponder how to “force a revolution on the workers against their will”, they smoke opium and discover free love. The situation is most difficult for François, a 20-year-old poet who has just fallen in love: The sculptress Lilie makes it obvious that even strong affection won’t stop her having relationships with other men...

About the director

Philippe Garrel (b. 1948, Paris), the son of comedian Maurice Garrel. The director gives Godard and the rock band Velvet Underground as his two main sources of inspiration. He is also interested in the French New Wave and its themes, above all, the emotional crisis of the modern man and the mechanisms of revolutionary ideals. His screenplays have involved the participation of writer M. Cholodenko Emergency Kisses (Les baisers de secours,1989) and filmmaker N. Lvovsky The Phantom Heart (Le coeur fantôme, 1996), and he also works with famous cameraman W. Lubtchansky. To date, Garrel has made 18 feature-length films, of which I Can No Longer Hear the Guitar (J’entends plus la guitare, 1991) won a Silver Lion at the Venice IFF; ten years later he won the International Critics’ Prize at the same festival for his film Wild Innocence (Sauvage innocence, 2001). In 2005 he took away another Silver Lion from Venice for his direction of Regular Lovers.