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Love Etc. |
List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $17.98 |
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Reviews |
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Description:
Marion Vernoux's romantic drama Love Etc. is based on a novel by Julian Barnes, but it echoes Truffaut's Jules and Jim (in spirit more than plot) in its examination of an impossible ménage à trois. Shy Yvan Attal and unlucky-in-love Charlotte Gainsbourg meet through a personal ad. Attal sent a picture of his handsome best friend, confident womanizer Charles Berling, but it matters little as they fall for each other's charm and sincerity. Inevitably, Berling joins the couple and the trio pals around until the marriage, when the outwardly confident but secretly lonely and desperate Berling realizes he too loves Gainsbourg and begins hounding her. Vernoux gets the best from her cast: Gainsbourg's awkward beauty and Attal's ruffled passivity create a sweetly believable couple, but there is room for lingering doubt. Berling has a lock on self-centered intellectuals in the French film industry, but here reveals a sad desperation and jealousy in his performance. Vernoux's light touch and playful asides suspend the film in a state of romantic comfort before the inevitable, sympathetic, but painful climax. What gives her modest tale character is the loving attention she gives each of the lovers and the generous, unexpected coda she rewards them--and us--with. --Sean Axmaker
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