Displaying items by tag: Bouli Lanners

LOVE SONGS FOR TOUGH GUYS/  Cette musique ne joue pour personne  

France/Belgium, 2021, 107 minutes, Colour.

François Damiens, Ramzy Bedia, Joey Starr, Bouli Lanners, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Raphaelle Doyle, Vincent Macaigne.

Directed by Samuel Bencherrit.

An unexpected experience. A strange blend of ordinary lives with music, poetry and theatre. A some veteran character actors in the cast.

The film is set in a port town, the French atmosphere, quite a wide range of characters, men and women, relationships, strained relationships, moments of violence, moments of reconciliation.

1. Title? The subtlety of the French? The directness of the British title?
2. The setting, the port town, the docks, homes, supermarket, theatre…?
3. The musical score, atmosphere, classics, popular songs, the songs for the play?
4. The screenplay, the humour, the seriousness, parody, violence, serious issues, stand over tactics, killings? And the contrast with the central characters, on the docks, their lives? And the influence of poetry, imagination, song, theatre?
5. Jeff at the centre of the action, at home, his relationship with his daughter, her surliness, at school, fellow students, romance, the birthday party? His neglected wife, 25 years? His infatuation with the woman at the checkout? At the group, the members reading their problems, the affirmation of the teacher, Jeff and his poem, the issue of the word Amaryllis, getting Neptune to deliver the poems, the woman not understanding them, Jeff and his desperation, discussions with the teacher, explaining the Alex and Ryan, the threat to the teacher if he failed? His continuing to compose, standing on the rocks, the plastic bag, the sea, the composition? The issue of the accountant and his wife, sending Jackie to get the money back?
6. Suzanne, her husband, Jackie arriving to get the money back, her calling her husband, the interchange, wanting the money, her ambitions for the play, Simone de Bauvoir on the television and her theories about women? The relationship with such? The clash with her husband, slapping, his death, hiding his body, Jackie returning, the continued contact, his reading the lines with her, the situation at the theatre, the actors performing South, their deaths, the actor rating, curtain close, his death? The invitation to Jackie? The rehearsals, the scene with each blowing the feather, Jackie’s response, the performance, success, the applause, Jeff and his applause?
7. Neptune, adopted by Jeff, his place in the household, doing Jeff’s bidding, the discussion about poems, his composition, going to meet the woman at the checkout, their discussion, the poem, her response? Approaching her, realising the truth? His anger with Neptune, the gangsters and the shootout, Neptune wounded? Jeff’s wife tending to him?
8. The wife, neglected, her not noticing, with her daughter, watching the television, 25 years, finding the poem in the rubbish, thinking it was for her, going to the hairdressers, helping with Neptune in the wound, Jeff’s realisation, asking her to close her eyes, to imagine and describe, her going over the marriage and their life, the reconciliation?
9. Poussin and Jesus, together, the discussions about art, the defined woman, the bag over her head, her denouncing as feminine? His reading, the dramatisation of the story of Eric Lamb, alone, going to the restaurant, the Indians and reincarnation, identifying him as their son, his finally accepting it and finding a place? Are the tough behaviour at the poetic? The place in the gang with Jeff?
10. The success of the play, Jeff present, but is going to the gang, the shootout, his confrontation with the wounded gangster? His sense of satisfaction?
11. The return to the sea, the strange experience for the audience, on the docks, life there, the violence, yet the opening to poetry, theatre and music?