Same Old Song (1997)

Shallow is the word that best describes this movie. One has to suffer through 2-hours of light entertainment, in which one is supposed to find depth in semi-comical moments, with the actors lip-syncing to french-oldies.Actually, depth is also supposed to be found in the neurotic nature of the seemingly in control characters. Well, it's supposed to be found there, as the characters are 2-dimensional, the plot is 2-bit and the movie is 1-hour too long.I'm giving it 2/10 because of the songs which I liked a lot, because of some funny moments and because of some moments of nice cinematography.

This film is light, but not empty. Following the interconnected lives of several Parisian bourgeois, the film uses snippets of popular music to demonstrate the emotional state of the characters in the style of a conventional musical. However, the music does both more than this and less. The characters do not sing their parts so much as lip-sync (badly) to tunes that one hears on the radio or in a movie. The songs are related to the characters' "inner lives" as a Nike swoosh or a Dior label would be - and that's the point. Each character has a musical style of sorts and maybe even a theme song, but the song "belongs" to the character like motion "belongs" to a jelly-fish. The characters, like the jelly-fish that are a motif of the finale scene, are less than unique, and much less than in control. However, they are at the same time quite human and sympathetic.Resnais, whom I count as being one of cinema's great geniuses, has a similar approach in On connaît la chanson as he does in Mon oncle d'Amérique, with pop songs in lieu of mice and jelly-fish in lieu of Henri Laborit. (See the info on the latter movie if this doesn't make sense...) What both films do is make one think about important questions of the complex relationship between brains, minds, and souls, and they do so without clobbering the viewer over the head with preachiness and over-simplifications. Contrast this with the sermonizing of the abominable Lars von Trier (of Dancer in the Dark fame) as well as with the mindless drek that that is generally shown in U.S. theaters.

The sing-along idea is clever and well-implemented, but the story goes around in circles and above all the film is too static to support the musical premise. It's sad to see such lackluster direction from the creator of _Hiroshima mon amour_. If you like Jaoui and Bacri, go see _Le gout des autres_!

This film is funny, witty and most importantly it works both as a serious film and a homage to Dennis Potter. Great acting, wonderful songs and an undercurrent of wit. One of my favourite French Films of recent times.