A Faithful Man
For all intents and purposes, Louis Garrel was introduced to U.S. moviegoers as one of the impossibly attractive, skirting incest bisexual twins in Bernardo Bertolucci’s 2003 “The Dreamers” (the other twin was played by Eva Green). Since then (although he will appear in Greta Gerwig’s upcoming “Little Women”), he has not done a great deal to further his international profile, but it has been enough to establish him as one of the more sultry leading men in French cinema.
But a leading man with adventurous taste in roles, and also a legacy of French cinema his grandfather is the actor Maurice Garrel; his father is Philippe Garrel, a director and sometimes actor who makes moody, often despairing romantic dramas that pinpoint the malaises of the children of ’68 with unsparing melancholy acuity. In recent years, père Garrel has used fils variously well; at length in the epic 2005 “Regular Lovers,” a fascinating answer film to “The Dreamers,” among others.
Recently however, Garrel has turned to directing himself: first with 2015’s “Two Friends,” inspired by a play by Alfred de Musset; now with “A Faithful Man,” co-written by Garrel and Jean Claude Carriere, whom one may remember as Luis Buñuel’s screenwriter during Buñuel’s magnificent ’60s-’70s run. One wonders occasionally how much of an off the old block and frequently depressive chip this is.
The answer being some but not much. Many a Phillippe film begins the way Abel Ferrara films do: A little bit of voiceover and then a dialogue between two people in an apartment somewhere in Paris who soon will not be getting along. Marianne (Laetitia Casta she is married to Garrel) asks Abel (Garrel) if he has a second. He does, and she proceeds to tell him that she’s pregnant and that he’s not the father of the child and that the father is a mutual friend and that she would like him out of the house in 10 days so she can marry this person.
It is all said very quietly and all very civilized like, but one does not doubt Abel when he describes this exchange as “brutal.” The French, they are like that. And this scene with its underplayed acting, attractive but-unfussy lensing (by Irene Lubtchansky, a longtime collaborator with Jacques Rivette), and young cloud of gloom suggests that Garrel could pick up dad’s torch any old day he wants it.
But hold on. What “A Faithful Man” soon reveals itself as being is a sly romantic comedy. Eight years pass indicated by title cards superimposed upon shots of Paris streets at night and Marianne tells Abel (who now has a beard) over drinks at an outdoor cafe table that Paul has died in his sleep. Marianne knew what happened because it was her hand on his chest feeling for breath Abe doesn’t know how to take this information either, but before there can be more confusion Joseph runs over.
Joseph is precisely eight years old now; scruffier than your average French cinema kid; keen on police procedurals; maybe I imagined this but did he just say something about wanting to convince Abe that Marianne poisoned her late husband? Also: Paul had a sister Eve who was also played by Lily Rose Depp, who has been crushing on Abe since she was a kid but now sees his presence in her circle as an opportunity to make good on this claim.
So it’s a peculiar little thicket of love quadrangle we’ve got here certainly. But then Garrel disposes of it in 75 minutes flat. He is a genuinely inventive director one senses his affection for Eve in her sometimes self correcting flashbacks.
Casta and Garrel create careful warmth as a couple falling in love again, with Depp and Engel providing the comedy ballast. Depp often uses a facial expression that says not just space cadet but full blown alien, while young Engel gives his character an understanding smugness, having him correctly identify the slayer during a family visit to the local rep cinema showing “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers.” The tuneful score by veteran composer Philippe Sarde (also the film composer for “Two Friends”) is pleasingly melodic and just slightly overripe, giving the movie a nice touch.
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