Thursday, March 20, 2008

Songs of Paris

My TONY interview with director Christophe Honoré and actor Louis Garrel can be found here. In the main piece they discuss mostly their collaboration on their new musical, Love Songs (Les Chansons d'amour); if you want want more, there's also a bonus Q&A in which Honoré expends on the film's shoot and on the one he just completed, an adaptation of Madame de Lafayette's La Princesse de Clèves.

Two striking things about Love Songs: It's a French musical that does not remind the viewer of Jacques Demy every other second, and it features one of the most gorgeous casts I've ever seen. I mean, it's like some beauty bomb exploded on the set.

The songs were written by Alex Beaupain, who can actually be seen in the movie, performing "Brooklyn Bridge" in a club. Honoré, Beaupain and the cast members participated in a special DVD-release party-slash-show back in December, and it looked like a ton of fun.

Louis Garrel and Ludivine Sagnier "De bonnes raisons" (from Les Chansons d'amour soundtrack)
Louis Garrel, Clotilde Hesme and Ludivine Sagnier "Je n'aime que toi" (from Les Chansons d'amour soundtrack)
Chiara Mastroianni "Au parc" (from Les Chansons d'amour soundtrack)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Am snagging the songs you've kindly provided to prolong my enamoured preoccupation with Les Chansons d'Amour.

The film has only just made it to Australia as part of the French Film Festival and I can only imagine it will be some wait before the soundtrack is available for purchase.

In the kindest possible way, I am utterly envious that you interviewed Louis - I trust he was suitably delicious.

Elisabeth Vincentelli said...

He was a little under the weather, battling a cold (and possibly the aftermath of partying on the Lower East Side). But he's a charmer all right. I have to admit I'd never been a fan until this movie, where he totally won me over.

L said...

This music is wonderful - thanks so much for the write-up and samples. Also, the post on Barbara Manning - thanks for the music, and she remains so tragically underrated. Wish I had time to explore all of your postings. I'm glad someone is keeping track of all these goings-on.