The Hairdresser's Husband (1990)
The film begins with a flashback from the titular character, Antoine. We are introduced to his fixation with female hairdressers which began at a young age. The film uses flashbacks throughout and there are frequent parallels drawn with the past. We are unsure what Antoine has done with his life, however, we know he has fulfilled his childhood ambition, to marry a hairdresser.
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This simple history is at the same time; funny (those wool bathing suits), sad (poetry, here, is sadness), amusing (that mesmerizing Arab dance) and moving (extreme love story). You feel your heart caught all the running time. It's a great example how to represent in cinema what's true love. A couple alone with themselves and their love. Nothing else needed, nothing else missed. As Antoine says: "No friends, no sons, nobody, just us". Even that's not accurate, but it's as they feel it. A very beautiful movie that let you at the end shuddered and melancholic...and envious of what the characters have had the luck to live. A must see. Absolutely recommended for romantic people. 8'5/10
I enjoyed this film. Its the type that makes u think a lot although the plot seems terribly simple. The biggest impression I got from this film is the egoism of the husband. It seems that IS the comedy of the film. I'm not sure if everyone caught this (I didn't till later) but did u notice that as a young man the hairdresser lady kills herself. Then his wife hairdresser kills herself as well, being overly impassioned by her husband, lol. And so it implies the earlier hairdresser when he was a young boy was impassioned with the little boy. The setting is enjoyable to watch. The culture is different than that in America so it is intriguing to see the lifestyle. A different type of movie in many respects. A passionate love story and yet satirical. No doubt a strange movie. The eroticism is captivating yet at times almost pornographic.
This movie made me feel righteous, and young again, as if I were in high school. It made me remember how much fun romantic love and theatre were when I first encountered them there. But then I remembered being warned by teachers about how love and theatre should be serious undertakings, because they were essentially dangerous. Even in my literature class, sexual morality was emphasized. Whenever a heroine was involved in passionate sex, two things seemed to happen. First, her lover left her. Second, she killed herself. Tolstoi's Anna Karenina, Flaubert's Madame Emma Bovary, Shakespeare's Juliet and Zola's Therese Racquin all killed themselves. But perhaps because of my stagecrew teacher, on the other hand, who joked a lot -- and was fond of Wagnerian music (don't ask me why) -- I was familiar with Brunhilde, who also killed herself. Her reason was religious, though. The other ladies couldn't bear living in social disgrace, but Brunhilde wanted Odin (her spiritual father) and the people who worshipped him to know that dying in love was as honorable as dying in battle. Patrice Leconte uses Brunhilde as a dramatic model in this movie, "The Hairdresser's Husband." Like the supernaturally powerful warrior Brunhilde, Leconte's hairdresser (Mathilde) wields a knife. "The point was sharp and true, a fearsome cutting blade," Wagner said. Mathilde kills herself differently than Wagner's Brunhilde did, but the meaning is the same. Mathilda throws herself into a surging river from a bridge, but surely this is meant to be symbolic because there is a bridge in France called "Brunhilde's bridge." Moralists will be completely confused by this movie, and selfish people will resent it. I loved it, and hope you do too.Mary Cadney, Oklahoma City
SPOILERS. Patrice Leconte can keep a cool head. After only one year from his last film (the cold and dark "Monsieur Hire"), he made a film that is another type but it's as successful as the previous one. A little boy called Antoine discovers sensuality thanks to his hairdresser, mrs Schaeffer. He decides that when he is a grown-up, he wants to marry a hairdresser. His dream becomes a reality when he's meeting a hairdresser called Mathilde. Then, they are thrilled......This is this happiness that the movie wants especially to show and its effects on the main characters and the making: the time and the daily life are abolished, the sceneries remain neutral. Concerning the main characters, they love themselves, feel like staying eternally in their "immobile ship" and as Metallica said in one of their songs: "nothing else matters".Leconte also attaches importance on the hairdresser's customers: they are colourful, a bit odd and due to this they make the hairdressing salon unusual. The end is a little unexpected. You could expect to see Antoine depressed and miserable but not all! Maybe he is lost in his happiness. All in all, a sensitive and delicate film very well performed.Note: this movie won the Louis Delluc price in 1990 equal with "le petit criminel" by Jacques Doillon.