It's tells a story, a statement or whatever you take. There is no blank or wrong plot or something like that with had nowadays movies. In a good flow, i saw a beautiful characters and good performances. I really enjoyed watching it.
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rabiadelpueblo26 February 2018
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The French film L'Amant d'un jour was shown in the U.S. with the translated title Lover for a Day. It was co-written and directed by Philippe Garrel.
This movie has an interesting concept. Jeanne is a young woman who is kicked out of her boyfriend's apartment. She has nowhere to go, so she ends up at her father's apartment. No problem, except that her father is living with a young woman named Ariane, who is about Jeanne's age. It's interesting that Jeanne is played by Esther Garrel, who is director Garrel's daughter.
The two women get along well enough, and, except for a very dramatic scene, not much happens in the movie. It's very French. For, example, Ariane goes to the boyfriend's apartment to pick up Jeanne's belongings. She and the boyfriend have a very polite conversation, and they end up saying goodbye with the French double kiss. Characters in a U.S. film wouldn't be that casual and polite in that situation. Apparently it works in France.
We saw this film at the wonderful Dryden Theatre in Rochester's George Eastman Museum. It's a privilege to have a theater that shows a retrospective series of films by a French director who's not exactly a household name in the U.S.
Sadly, we just couldn't get into Garrel's style of filmmaking. The staff who introduce the films go on and on about his talent, but my wife and I weren't impressed. Maybe you do, indeed, need to be French to appreciate Garrel.
Almost all of the action in this film takes place indoors, so the movie will work well on the small screen.
P.S. The movie is loaded with sex. For better or for worse, most of the coupling takes place with the man and woman standing up in lavatories that are only semi-private. Not a great basis for eroticism. -
oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx30 January 2018Lover For A Day is about a philosophy teacher who is in a relationship with one of his students, Ariane, and his daughter, Jeanne, of the same age who moves in with them for some time. It is very French in that they immediately co-exist instead of making spectacles (although there are some hints that they are human like the rest of us despite being Parisienne).
The title of the film refers to the brief infidelities of Ariane. This behaviour seems to be treated as enigmatic, as a philosophical curiosity. There is nothing curious about it, the magisterium of anthropology is the place to turn to, it is well documented that the human animal has primary and secondary sexual strategies for transmitting their genes to the next generation. The answer is banal, the participants in this drama are banal, they do not rise above what is animal in themselves, there is no transcendence, no romance.
Ariane describes falling in love with Gilles when he says in class, "Philosophy is not about divorcing oneself from life". It was difficult not to see some humour in this in that he comes off as a bookish and torpid man. Of course Ariane is simply sleeping with him because he has roguish good looks, is comfortable in his own skin, and is the nearest authority figure.
One cannot fault the actors, Éric Caravaca, Esther Garrel, Louise Chevillotte, who absolutely outclass the boring story. I hope that the career of Louise Chevillotte takes off, as this appears to be her "break" as the Americans say.
The film's main positive is that it has a certain quality of eroticism, Esther finds out that Ariane has appeared in a pornographic magazine quite by chance, and there is no clang here as Chevillotte is genuinely attractive enough that this is believable. The sex scenes are very warming.
Garrel shoots in black and white because he knows nothing else, an old dog that cannot learn new tricks. Is he the last victim of 1968, dead alive? When the credits rolled there were little gasps and titters, "is that it?", yes that's it, no punchline, a little story without profundities. -
euroGary23 January 2018'Lover for a Day' is a low-key French film shot in black-and-white (ooh, arty!) in which Jeanne (Esther Garrel, by sheer coincidence the daughter of the film's director Philippe) turns up on the doorstep of her college lecturer father Gilles (Éric Caravaca) following a bust-up with her boyfriend. But daddy has a surprise: he's shacked up with Ariane (Louise Chevillotte), one of his students, who is the same age as Jeanne. This could be the springboard for major histrionics (can you imagine a similar situation in 'EastEnders'?) but instead Jeanne and Ariane become friends, with Ariane helping Jeanne mend her broken heart, and Jeanne in turn becoming complicit in Ariane's extra-curricular sexual activities.
With its play-like structure, this is very much an actors' film. If I am correct that Garrel owes her role to nepotism, I must admit that she does not let down her father, as like Chevillotte she turns in a subtly affecting performance. The often inconsequential conversations between the two young women are naturalistic without having the embarrassing 'workshopped' feel apparent in some other films. Caravaca, by virtue of age the more exprerienced actor of the trio, is also good, particularly when Gilles' relationship with Ariane begins to break down - once again, restraint is the key.
I enjoyed this. I look forward to watching it again. -
moviesknight10 October 2022Fidelity is an interesting topic to explore. For some it is the most important thing in a relation while others tend to think of it as just some other part of relation, not important. For some fidelity is with physical contact, memories, stories and everything in between while for others it doesnt count for anything. Every film has a point for their movie, which they want to convey, whether you like that point or not, doesnt matter. If it is clearly portrayed then the director justifies making a point, while sometimes the film just tries to present what is going on with the people. And this fidelity is somewhat that is increasing in number, maybe due to chances people get, or maybe they are open to talk about it. Whatever the case, it is an important part of a well standing relation. Also this film deals with the post breakup situation of a girl (who was in love, not just regular breakup). The way she deals with the post breakup situation, and how sometimes we are inches away from destroying our lives. Not caring. Just impulses. If not for the people close to us, saving us. Many other things discussed in this film, impulses, one night stands, secrets, journey of relations, and kindness. Even though it had good black and white ambiance I wont be suggesting it to others.
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About love and sex affairs, and also other intimate relations, all of them mostly dysfunctional (but realistic). In beautiful black and white cinematography.
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alyonkyast8 October 2018At first sight, the interesting plot about relationships of new Gilles's mistress and his daughter seems original, but since the third shot the intrigue becomes predictable. Because of the weak dramatic structure, the film is sluggish. The story is clear. A philosophy professor named Gilles (Éric Caravaca) has a relationship with Ariane (Louise Chevillotte), who is one of his students. Gilles' daughter, Jeanne (Esther Garrel), moves in to live with them after being kicked out of her boyfriend's apartment. Later, we find out that Ariane is attracted to young men and she also was shot for the cover of porn magazine. One of the strangest things that Gilles and Jeanne does not understand who Ariane is. In my opinion, the actress so badly pretends to be a wolf in sheep's clothing, that her heinous character is obvious from the very beginning. There is one positive thing, it is an idea, that false love helps father to establish relations with his daughter. And thanks to negative example of Ariane's behavior, Jeanne and her boyfriend made up and started to appreciate each other. The fuzzy and weak conflict is over like that way. It is not clear what happens in Ariane's soul when she says to Gilles and Jeanne that she loves them both. Furthermore, it is not clear what happens in souls of all characters at this film. The climax is too vague, we also watch as Ariane has sex with another young man. And what conclusion should we draw from this? It is not the first time. The scene like that we saw at least twice before, so it is not surprised us at all. As for director of photography work, it is very simple. The shots are flat without any perspective and depth. The mise en scenes are not built well, big close-ups are not always well connected with previous frames. It may seem, that the editor did not have enough time to make image on the screen more technical quality. The color score, perhaps, must help us to believe in this story and must give us an opportunity to perceive it more reliably. And that's the whole idea! I suppose, that it would have been better if the director had spent more time working with actors than on pondering the color rendition of the film. To sum up, the idea of the film lies on the surface, and the director's conception is too simple for the quality artistic expression.
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juanoyhanarte1 May 2018An exploration of love and fidelity tied with a gloomy but humorous feeling.
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One of those tiny, discreet, very French films, where if someone works it is because he is a professor of philosophy, and the faculty is one of those places where personalities develop, you learn a lot, but you never see no student studying.
This late product of the nouvelle vague is like watching an Eric Rohmer moral tale shot by a Jean Eustache who had decided to do more traditional movies.
The story could be called "The daughter and the whore", it is even shot in black and white and basically in Parisian apartments and cafes.
A father lives with his new love, one of his students, and with his daughter who returns home after an unfortunate relationship. It is not easy to know what the moral is, but everything seems to revolve around fidelity.
In the end, the characters are more conventional than they want to appear at the beginning of the film, and the relationships that work are shown to be the more traditional.
Or not, because in the end you cannot be sure that once the film is finished, in a few weeks the tables won't be turned, after all you do not get to know the characters very much.
Anyway it sounds quite real most of the time. It's interesting, a nice picture, with a good casting, with a somewhat jumpy rythm. But the lasting impression is that it lacks scope and ambition.