Customer Reviews

Le Mari de la coiffeuse

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This movie is hauntingly beautiful. When i first saw it, I was absolutely in awe at the raw beauty of it. It grabbed my heart and made it beg for absolute mercy. I loved it even though it made me weep several times over. There is no "happy ending" to this film as Americans would have it. In this way it doesn't underestimate the viewer, it just makes them realize that life is all things; paiful, delightful, sensuous, disastrous. I recommend this movie highly.

I knew of Patrice Leconte through "Monsieur Hire" but nothing prepared me for this absolute, mysterious masterpiece. The thing I loved most about this film was the characters' apparent lack of motivation and the unreality that pervaded every frame of the movie. Actually, the characters aren't all that mysterious once you realize that they are acting spontaneously, in response to deeply felt emotional promptings,instead of exhibiting the typical calculated responses of Americans, who usually derive their sense of self-worth and their notions of what is desirable from the television world of George Clooney et al. See, Leconte says, you can actually live spontaneously and authentically, even break out into dancing for no apparent reason. And the fact that life is so capricious, so filled with the tragic and unexpected (the suicide of Mathilde) makes it even more imperative that we live fully in the moment, honoring our truest feelings and deepest desires.

An extension of this was the typically Gallic celebration of "inappropriate" love. Rather than extolling the quotidian in matters of the heart, the French (and other Europeans) constantly remind us that there is in fact no quotidian--that love is often an unequal alliance between people of different ages and backgrounds who come together for no discernible reason and fulfill each other according to no defensible plan in the brief time that is theirs.

If this film leaves you scratching your head, it won't fail to amaze you with its beautiful cinematography and hypnotic editing. The hair-cutting scenes are some of the most sensual in the history of cinema, especially those in which there is no overt sexual tension.

A masterpiece.

The French certainly know how to film a sensuous romantic tale without an ounce of vulgarity. This film is a beautiful tribute about a young boy growing up with an obsession for hairdressers. It is often funny, sexy, and even sad but woven together masterfully into a striking film.

Jean Rochefort plays the man who recounts his life story as it pertains to his love affair with women hairdressers. He begins the story developing a crush upon an older robust woman who cuts his hair. As a grown man he falls in love with a beautiful woman who holds a life of mystery but he marries her without question and never seems to see any faults within her. Rochefort represents either a man in complete and blinding love or an obsessive pervert depending on how you look at him. He is tender and loving but also pretty close to stalking material! His best scenes are also his funniest when he dances to Arabic music and tries to mesmerize little boys into getting their haircuts without fussing.

The woman who plays the "hairdresser" is Anna Galiena, an absolute beauty who is seductive and troubled. She holds the town's men within her grasp but only loves Rochefort. The love scenes are extremely erotic without any nudity, something only the French are capable of filming it seems. Galiena never reveals her past or why she seems somehow desperately sad. She seems to cover up her emptiness through an anxious obsession with cutting hair and having sex with Rochefort. Her quiet complexities carry the film because the viewers continue to hope for something to be revealed about this private stunning woman.

Although this film is exquisitely beautiful it is also frustrating because the characters never reveal their truths. It is easy to see why Rochefort would be passionate about Galiena but what drives Galiena to be interested in Rochefort? Possibly the filmmakers decided to let the viewers form their own opinions about each character. Regardless it is worth the effort but you may never look at hairdressers quite the same.

This truly unique film goes deep inside the development of a man's true love for the woman of his dreams. What appears to be a fixation rooted from childhood feelings towards a hairdresser and the good-feeling they represent, is a unique love that spurs pure from the heart. In return, the recipient of this love is also a giver and the relationship these two people share is greater than any outsider can understand. A twist in the end of this picture forces one to analyze the true passion this couple had for each other. A refreshing unique expression of love is displayed here, which sets itself apart from the typical boy meets girl film. As most foriegn films dicate: God is in the Details. Watch closely and enjoy.

He is a middle-aged French guy who has since childhood dreamt of being le mari d'une coiffeuse, the husband of a hairdresser. She is the beautiful, sexy coiffeuse who only cuts men's hair. They fall in love. They spend their days at the shop together in a private, surreal existence. They experience each other in exquisite detail. The unexpected, heart-wrenching ending will have you struggling to understand, quietly reflecting for a long while after.

Subtle but with intense under-currents, heart-breaking yet uplifting... Superlative minimalistic acting and story-telling. Must-see, must-own...

Who can deny the beauty and humanity of this special relationship, filled with admirable tenderness and captivating spell?
Patrice Laconte undoubtedly has made till this moment his best film. And thanks to Jean Rochefort this living legend of the French Cinema this film could win. I just can not imagine about another actor who could match with Rochefort in this unusual and engaging film.
Go for this artwork and enjoy every time you watch it!

Like a previous person, I make a point of watching any film directed by Patrice Leconte. I also think "The Hairdresser's Husband" is perhaps both his finest and his most obscure work.

This touching film stars veteran French actor Jean Rochefort as Antoine--the hairdresser's husband, and Anna Galiena is Mathilde, the hairdresser ... enough said!

The film portrays life at its finest as well as its most sad times. I found the film a little slow at some points but neccessary to enforce the fact that sometimes life is just peaceful and inactive and at times - rash and quick.

(This is edited from my IMDb review) The director (Patrice Leconte) has a gift for helping us see people from other perspectives (e.g., "The Man on the Train", and others). And as in that movie, Jean Rochefort is one of the leading characters. And, as there can be no one single meaning to a work of art, so any movie will evoke many. But I strongly disagree with the narrative described in most other reviews of this charming movie, thinking my own makes far more sense.

A boy (perhaps 12 years old?) on the cusp of puberty, enjoys the sensuality of physical closeness to the woman barber who cuts his hair. His father has aspirations for his children and, one evening at supper, he asks this son what he wants to be when he grows up. He mistakes his son's answer, groping toward his awakening sexuality (and wanting to marry a female barber), for a lack of ambition. He disapproves of his son's ambition and over-reacts, chastising him at the supper table, and sends him immediately to his room. There is a hint that then both he and his wife think he's gone too far and may be suffering from the thought that he's been overly punishing.

But instead of being hurt or angry, his son takes further solace in his fantasy, very much as Max did (in different ways) in the classic book, "Where the Wild Things Are." The rest of this movie is this son's dream of what his future would be like married to a female hairdresser. As in a dream--as in a 12 year old boy's simplified view of what it means to be a married adult and what an adult world is like--many parts of reality are missing: e.g., it's as if he needs no job, as if love & marriage happen in almost an instant, as if his wife's life revolves only about him and his about her, as if all their adult life took place in his wife's barber shop, and as if his wife would, of course, prefer death to losing him.

The somewhat bizarre little recurring dance which he does underscores the non-reality, the dream-like quality of this major part of the movie. This is a charming movie of the world of a boy who is just coming into puberty, trying to make sense of this new, delightful experience of being close to a woman's body. That's the meaning to me and this view is so compelling it's hard to believe the director intended any other. And it's also hard for me to understand why reviews by experienced critics (like Roger Ebert) miss what (to me) is such an obviously intended meaning.

This film breaks my heart, not only due to the sadness of its story, but also because of the beautiful story telling. This movie makes me more aware of the precious moment of life - the moment that will never come back to us. Life is very short as though it is a blink or two, and I easily forget it, but the film reminds me of it so I can utilize my time efficiently as time does not go backward even though it sometimes seems that way.