Product Details

• Actors: Louis Garrel, Clotilde Hesme, Julien Lucas, Eric Rulliat, Nicolas Bridet
• Directors: Philippe Garrel
• Format: Black & White, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: French
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Zeitgeist Films
• DVD Release Date: May 22, 2007
• Run Time: 175 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000MTFDH4
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #39,250 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Regular Lovers" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Winner of numerous international awards and garnering universal acclaim worldwide, Philippe Garrel's Regular Lovers (Les Amants réguliers) is a rapturous paean to France's near-revolution of May '68 and its aftermath. Shooting in lustrous black and white, Garrel and legendary cinematographer William Lubtchansky capture the era's ambiance with an opulent intimacy that suggests an apocryphal French New Wave opus, while sparring overtly with Bernardo Bertolucci's controversial The Dreamers. Leading a young cast who look and act uncannily period-perfect, the director's son Louis Garrel (The Dreamers, Dans Paris, Ma Mère) confirms himself as one of the hottest new French performers of the moment. Garrel the younger plays François, a student-slash-poet grappling with the tumult--and the doomed romance--of the infamous Parisian riots. After the movement implodes, everyday reality hits with a crash: François is hauled in for draft-dodging, falls in love with aloof sculptor Lilie (Clotilde Hesme), while the well-heeled Antoine can only pass the opium pipe. Regular Lovers is a stunning re-imagining of a misunderstood "golden" age, painstakingly crafted with a combination of bitter nostalgia and an austere yet romantic vision of Paris by night and day.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Stunning new transfer, in the film's original full screen theatrical aspect ratio
- Venice Film Festival Press Conference with director Philippe Garrel, stars Louis Garrel and Clotilde Hesme and producer Gilles Sandoz
- Philippe Garrel filmography
- French theatrical trailer
- Optional English subtitles
- Extensive new essay by film critic Kent Jones

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Regular Lovers in Revolutionary Times., May 8, 2008

By	G. Merritt (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Regular Lovers (Les amants réguliers) is a grainy (though visually stunning) black and white film directed by prolific New-Wave director Philippe Garrel, starring his talented son, Louis Garrel (Ma Mere; The Dreamers; Dans Paris; Les Chansons d'amour). Louis Garrell was awarded the 2006 Cesar Award for his performance in this film. Also of interest, his godfather is actor Jean-Pierre Léaud.

It is tempting to compare this film to Bernardo Bertolucci's earlier film, The Dreamers, and then to compare Louis Garrell's performances in each. Set during and after the 1968 student riots in Paris (in which director Philippe Garrel was an actual participant with his 35mm camera), the 3-hour (tiresome-at-times) epic tells the story of François (Garrell), a 20-year-old poet, who would rather smoke opium and talk revolution than throw a Molotov cocktail at the police. In the first hour of the film, the "Night of the Barricades," director Garrel and cinematographer William Lubtchansky visually capture the spirit of the Paris riots. (Despite the fact that movie takes place during the 1968 riots, in one scene, several characters are shown dancing to the 1970 Kinks' song, "This Time Tomorrow.") In the second half of the film, François tries to make sense of it all amidst a culture of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. He falls hopelessly in love with a beautiful, free-spirited sculptor named Lilie (Clotilde Hesme). When Lilie has sex with another man, François is forced to confront the nature of love. At one memorably educational point in the film, Lilie breaks the fourth wall, looks at the camera, and asks "Have you seen Before the Revolution? Bernardo Bertolucci." Got it. As a 1968 flashback, Regular Lovers succeeds in cutting through all the romantic mythology surrounding the Paris student riots. Louis Garrell is reason enough to see this film.

G. Merritt

8 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Confirms Louis Garrel as a great actor., March 6, 2007

By	Berlinale (NYC) - See all my reviews

I recently saw this at the Cinema Village in NYC and was stunned by this evocative, opium infused, gorgeous film.

Shot in stark black and white by the great William Lubtchansky, the film is a vivid evocation of a misunderstood golden age when young people thought they could change the world merely by taking to the streets. It's a powerful antidote to the insipid, uninspired THE DREAMERS, the film it's often compared to. A very personal Proustian reminiscence and a very public conjuring of ghosts, the film is simultaneously celebratory and melancholic. Given the right frame of mind, it's absolutely rapturous.

6 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Kids Those Days, February 7, 2007

By	Chris Roberts "Chris Roberts" (Astoria, NY) - See all my reviews

It is nearly impossible to discuss this film without referencing Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Dreamers" as they both take place during the students revolt in Paris back in 1968. "Regular Lovers," while not nearly as good, does have a lot going for it, most of all credibility and teeth. Filmed in black and white the cinematic gloss found of "The Dreamers" has been stripped off to reveal a period of anxiety and fear along with hope and love. This is certainly not a tale of rich kids prancing around Daddy's penthouse while reality transpires outside their bubble. These kids take their fight seriously. Cars are torched, cops are hated, and murder by Molotov Cocktail is always within arms reach. But more than that director Philippe Garrel wants you to think about what comes after revolution as it never lasts forever. According to him you can either sell out and join the middle class or you can die. And at least if you die you can be considered just.

The early part of the film does focus on the day to day of fighting a violent battle for change. The main point of contention seems to be a government that tries to coerce its young people into military service and throw those in jail who do not fall in line and become killers. Garrel is on the right side but his portrayal of both sides is a little. . .well. . .black and white. The police are fascists and the revolutionaries are pacifist poets. As the story moves along though these two icons begin to bleed into one another. And as the youthful flames of anger cool with age suddenly the poet and the fascist find themselves having a conversation about art. Kids, who earlier in the movie would never again talk to a person who had been smeared with the tag "a bourgeois," would begin taking on responsibilities that looked quite bourgeois. Romance, perhaps the ultimate bourgeois indulgence, is what is most to blame for the end of the revolution here. And I guess the real question remains: Was it all inevitable? They are started off with the most noble of intentions, but eventually human nature takes over. Free love morphs into ownership, not liking work morphs into not liking starvation.

If all these new urges blindside our characters (who I could never connect to) they can hardly be blamed for not trying. They wanted to feel good so if they had to do drugs or have sex or overthrow a government to do so then oh well. Far better that than those religious zealots who work so hard just to deprive people from feeling good. The film as a whole was not that good though. Way overlong at three hours it kept my attention for maybe two. But subtract the plethora of scenes that involved nothing more than opium smoking and you might have a winner on your hands. And don't think Gerrel didn't have "The Dreamers" on his mind when he made this. Throughout the film there are only two lines that are spoken with the character looking directly into the camera. The first, "Bernardo Bertolucci." So he called out a master and lost a duel, can't blame a guy fro trying. **1/4