LOVE SONGS FOR TOUGH GUYS
[CETTE MUSIQUE NE JOUE POUR PERSONNE]
The latest quirky comedy from Samuel Benchetrit (MACADAM STORIES) focuses on a group of middle-aged, middleclass gangsters who've long run the smuggling operations in their northern port city, but who now may be losing a step to their younger, wilder rivals. The threat of midlife crisis extends to their personal lives, too, as gang leader François Damiens pines so ardently for pretty cashier Constance Rousseau at his local supermarché that he takes to composing her poetry, delivered by his adopted brother Ramzy Bedia with "Cyrano"-esque implications. Meanwhile, Damiens' mopey, depressed wife Valeria Bruni Tedeschi sits on the couch all day watching reality TV with her sullen teenage daughter Raphaelle Doyle. Trusted henchmen Bouli Lanners and JoeyStarr are charged with planning the teen's birthday party, and ensuring that the handsome young miscreant she likes shows up, which proves to be a humbling task. And mob enforcer Gustave Kervern discovers his secret passion for the stage only after meeting aspiring actress Vanessa Paradis – the widow of a recent target – who stutters except when she's performing as Simone de Beauvoir in the new stage musical about de Beauvoir's romance with Jean-Paul Sartre. DIR/SCR Samuel Benchetrit; SCR Gábor Rassov; PROD Julien Madon. France/Belgium, 2021, color, 107 min. In French with English subtitles. NOT RATED
No AFI Member passes accepted.
Run Time: 107 Minutes
Opening Date: Saturday, December 11, 2021
Genre: Comedy