The most notable feature of this film has to be the fact that it contains a rather remarkable gay love story. Yes, two men. This instantly explains the poor distribution of the film (above all in the US) which other reviewers seem to find baffling. Well, it's not perplexing at all: the prevailing judgment in the film distribution world in the United States is that anything containing male homosexuality is box office poison, offensive to Christians, etc. In fact, the Ismael/Erwann romance, the new love which resolves the protagonist's lost love, is strikingly inconspicuous in all the promotional material associated with "Les Chansons" - posters, images, cast list (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, who plays Erwann, is completely sidelined, though his character is as important as Ludivine Sagnier's). But clearly hiding Erwann and the gay theme from view didn't help: "Les Chansons" had to be hidden from the viewers altogether. It's nothing new where (male) gay content is concerned. As we know, getting "Brokeback Mountain" made and distributed was a long, wearying, obstacle-ridden business, and the film was deliberately snubbed at the Oscars. Similar difficulties attend every other film in which there is any representation of gay men doing what they do - i.e. making love to other men. In "Les Chansons" the problem is all the more acute, because one of the men doesn't seem to be gay at all ... so it appears that he chooses homosexual love.
And this is one of the elements which make "Les Chanson" unique - it's unusual, to say the least, to encounter the implicit suggestion that a male character with heterosexual experience (documented in the film) might opt in favour of gay love. The two men in question also constitute an original, even startling combination - just as distinctive and unforgettable as the two lovers in "Brokeback".
This is a beautiful and outstanding film, so it is good to see that 19 of the 24 reviews here (before mine) say that. But it's disturbing that even here on IMDb all 5 negative reviews (below) focus their disdain and hostility on the gay content. One reviewer details his "loathing", dismissing all the rest of us (who like the film) as gay, another calls the film "too gay", another attacks the "sleaze" and "downmarket sex". (There are even a few positive reviews here which go all nervous and jittery about the Ismael/Erwann romance.) Hmmmmmmm! This is the 21st century.
Otherwise, "Les Chansons" is remarkable for its vision of Paris, especially the streets of Paris, and of course for ... les chansons. It is a most intriguing, off-beat form of musical - the way in which the actors utter their songs is very different from conventional "singing": to such a degree that one has to pay attention to note that they really ARE singing. But it is in fact real singing, and these are real songs. Songs of love, chansons d'amour.
And this is one of the elements which make "Les Chanson" unique - it's unusual, to say the least, to encounter the implicit suggestion that a male character with heterosexual experience (documented in the film) might opt in favour of gay love. The two men in question also constitute an original, even startling combination - just as distinctive and unforgettable as the two lovers in "Brokeback".
This is a beautiful and outstanding film, so it is good to see that 19 of the 24 reviews here (before mine) say that. But it's disturbing that even here on IMDb all 5 negative reviews (below) focus their disdain and hostility on the gay content. One reviewer details his "loathing", dismissing all the rest of us (who like the film) as gay, another calls the film "too gay", another attacks the "sleaze" and "downmarket sex". (There are even a few positive reviews here which go all nervous and jittery about the Ismael/Erwann romance.) Hmmmmmmm! This is the 21st century.
Otherwise, "Les Chansons" is remarkable for its vision of Paris, especially the streets of Paris, and of course for ... les chansons. It is a most intriguing, off-beat form of musical - the way in which the actors utter their songs is very different from conventional "singing": to such a degree that one has to pay attention to note that they really ARE singing. But it is in fact real singing, and these are real songs. Songs of love, chansons d'amour.