VANCOUVER PREMIERE // VANCITY THEATRE EXCLUSIVE
One of France's most underrated (and best) filmmakers, Philippe Garrel has leapt into newfound prominence with the extraordinary Regular Lovers, revisiting the tumultuous time of his youth in gorgeous, shimmering black and white.
Winner of numerous international awards and garnering universal acclaim worldwide, Philippe Garrel's Regular Lovers is a rapturous paean to France's near-revolution of May '68 and its aftermath. Garrel and legendary cinematographer William Lubtchansky capture the era's ambiance with an opulent intimacy that suggests an apocryphal French New Wave opus, while sparring overtly with Bernardo Bertolucci's controversial The Dreamers.
Leading a young cast who look and act uncannily period-perfect, the director's son Louis Garrel (The Dreamers, Dans Paris, Ma Mère) confirms himself as one of the hottest new French performers of the moment. Garrel the younger plays François, a student-slash-poet grappling with the tumult-and the doomed romance-of the infamous Parisian riots. After the movement implodes, everyday reality hits with a crash: François is hauled in for draft-dodging, falls in love with aloof sculptor Lilie (Clotilde Hesme), while the well-heeled Antoine can only pass the opium pipe.
Regular Lovers is a stunning re-imagining of a misunderstood "golden" age, painstakingly crafted with a combination of bitter nostalgia and an austere yet romantic vision of Paris by night and day.
For more on director Philippe Garrel see article in Cinemascope
"... but where that movie [The Dreamers] used history as the backdrop for a nostalgic-romantic fantasy, Regular Lovers is like a long, intoxicating drag from a revolutionary pipe lit 37 years ago that is still smoldering. This movie gets into your bloodstream and it lingers there. You don't merely watch it-you live it." -Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly
"Magnificent" - Manhola Dargis, The New York Times
"a startling and intriguing piece of work" - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Photos available at: http://www.vifc.org/media.html
Username: Media Password: Download
Screeners Available | 
