TWO’S company, three’s a crowd – except in French films.
In “Jules et Jim” (1961), Francois Truffaut beguiled us with the story of two men who agree to share the woman they both love (Jeanne Moreau).
Now, in Christophe Honore’s pleasing “Love Songs,” one Parisian guy shares his bed with two women. (Paris is the city of love, after all.)
The young man is Ismael, played by Louis Garrel, who happens to be one of France’s hottest actors. The women are Julie (Ludivine Sagnier, who wore an awesome bikini in “Swimming Pool”) and Alice (Clotilde Hesme).
But when tragedy strikes and Ismael is on his own, he finds comfort in the arms of a college boy.
“Love Songs” is a tribute to the French New Wave, especially to Truffaut’s Antoine Donel films (Garrel is a perfect stand-in for Jean-Pierre Leaud) and the musicals of Jacques Demy, with characters bursting into song at a moment’s notice.
Chiara Mastroianni, whose mom, Catherine Deneuve, starred in Demy’s “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” (1964), appears here as Julie’s sister. Vive la New Wave.
In French, with English subtitles. Running time: 95 minutes. Not rated (sexuality). At the Paris and the IFC Center. – V.A. Musetto