Abel and Vincent’s subtle connection is quite pleasant, perhaps because this attitude of men to each other is extremely rare. Vincent is constantly trying to help his friend, take care of him with all sincerity, and Abel still considers him selfish, not himself. The first appears in the I-Parent position in relation to the second, which is in the I-Child position. With this method of interaction, heroes become necessary for each other.
Mona, despite being the center of attention of the characters, is somewhat shaded against their background, or rather, it distinguishes them with its presence, providing the ground for testing friendship. In general, the characters of the trio, for all their diversity, seem to fit well together. It is worth noting the element of escape of characters from each other, which adds playfulness and dynamics to the film. Expressive and dance Mona in the bar, which is literally therapeutic, splashes out her accumulated internal fatigue and pain.
As a result, the movie leaves us with Abel’s lies, which are indifferent and only reinforce the lightness and naivety of the picture.
Scares off the deliberate festival nature of the picture - each character with its extreme features, average individuals, that is, we are not observed in the center of the events, all the dialogue is about nothing and nowhere. The attempt to be something more has led to a complete loss of meaning, from which the film has become like cutting shots, some of which, to be credited, cause genuine interest.
Almost any episode involving Farahani is pleasing to the eye, especially the scenes in which she dances, her plasticity and natural beauty are sometimes mesmerizing. But appearance is not her only advantage, she is quite actorly gifted and only thanks to her efforts was able to sit until the final credits.
Of course, you can start to muddle the topic of friendship, which is exactly what Garrel was doing, but what is happening on the screen is so small and fussy that it will even be awkward to call the whole emptiness such a high word.
The film will not recommend for viewing, it is a boring, sluggish action, unable to evoke sincere feelings, and all this endless mental reflection causes only bewilderment. Don't waste your time!!!
This rhetorical question arises in the mind of everyone who is preparing to watch the debut film of Louis Garrel and expects to see on the screen the confrontation of two concepts.
The author of the film is not able to answer this question and decides to show friendship in a completely new way: friendship as love.
And indeed, we have the story of three people, where it is extremely difficult to say who is superfluous. Two long-known comrades, despite their differences in character, are united by concern and concern for each other. But will their friendship survive the test of attraction to a beautiful and mysterious stranger?
Louis Garrel, already an expert in love triangles ('Dreamers' Bertolucci) unfolds on the screen a mini-drama, a breakup and a reunion, sets values and priorities, doing it with absolute dedication and falling in love with his craft.
The theme of the May Revolution of 1968, which is cross-cutting in the work of Garrels, was not ignored. The first touch on this subject in art for Louis happened in the film Bertolucci ' Dreamers' then in the film of his father Philip Garrel ' Permanent Lovers'. No wonder that Louis himself in his debut film will touch on such an important topic for him, as if paying tribute and thanks for her success.
In the mouth of his characters, he puts thoughts that actually bother him. Clément, an aspiring actor, rightly says that even in small things, you can not allow oversight, otherwise the film will not be real. This rule is obvious and follows Louis, since he rehearses for a long time with his actors before he gets a real emotion, which will be fixed by the lens of his camera.
This film is definitely about love in all its manifestations, about frivolity, about some naivety and childishness of the main characters. However, it has so much French charm, beauty and casual humor that it can be revisited with great pleasure over and over again.
9 out of 10
Louis Garrel. This beautiful young man amazed me with his identity in the films Dreamers and American Translation. He is easily given romantic roles and incredible love stories. Now he is also the director of the film, in which he is also in the lead role.
Once again, we find ourselves in the real Paris. France again, the melody of streets, railway stations, apartments. Always only live emotions, always the depth of the inner world of heroes.
The intellect of the film goes beyond all morals and codes. Heroes love, allow you to show your feelings, not shy and not afraid to be misunderstood. As always, I see adults who are capable of falling in love, capable of sacrificing for the sake of a loved one, regardless of religion, or lack thereof, or love preferences. I saw once again, thanks to the picture, how unimportant circumstances are, and important are such simple and necessary for me and think to each person, such feelings and actions as tenderness, love, light flirting, touching and kissing. And by the way, I believe every breath and every word of the three characters in the film. Impeccable acting, which allows you to forget about everything while watching, live life together with the characters and draw the necessary conclusions.
I believe that this picture moves the world to a bright smart and friendly world.
9 out of 10
Probably, it is for such films that I like French cinema, “Friends”, although more correctly “Two Friends”, a life film and a story shown could happen in any country, it is out of space, even Paris does not play a role in the film, it is represented by cafe windows, small streets, a railway station apron, a bridge, Louis Garrel seems to deliberately blur the city bringing people and relationships to the fore.
Vincent and Abel are different people and it is unclear what can connect them, but they are friends, as paradoxical as it seems. The overconfident Abel complements the eccentric Vincent, and they need one another, since in fact even Abel needs someone to admire him, and his care or attention is needed by Vincent. Meeting Mona was a test of the friendship of men. There is no point in retelling this story, in order to enjoy this tape, you need to see how these three 48 hours will spend together, and what aspects of nature the director will highlight. Garrell managed to notice and show even the smallest manifestations of feelings in the characters, whether it was Vincent’s relationship with Mona, or the transfer of Abel’s essence through the look at him of Mona, who ruthlessly and accurately turned his gut, and of course through the conversations of Vincent and Abel. Dialogues and monologues (which by the way are rare) are built very concisely, conveying only the essence of what is happening and putting the necessary emphasis on the episode. By the way, each episode of the film gives the viewer some fact or trait of the characters, which is later revealed in an unexpected way. And as for friendship – this is how it is for two Frenchmen (although you can put any nationality, the essence will not change), the best illustration of the relationship of the heroes was in the final words of Abel, when he denies the obvious thing, it turned out funny.
The performances of this film can be enjoyed. In the first place in the complexity of the role and film incarnation I will put Golshifte Farahani, her Mona and the driving force of the plot development, and a very original character herself, the director does not reveal all the secrets of the heroine, but her actions and behavior highlight both the traits of the characters of men and draw the image of the heroine herself. Louis Garrel (remembered by Bertalucci's "Dreamers") played Abel, and played very well, mood changes and throwing he succeeded. Vincent Macken, who played Vincent, turned out to be both cute and tragic, his self-doubt is shown both through his relationship with a woman and through the profession of an actor, where he also does not succeed, because he cannot change his attitude to life, and the actor managed to convey this to the viewer.
Such a film, about love, friendship and in general about life, a special charm probably came from watching it in French, when the halftones of words add color.
8 out of 10
The debut feature-length film by Frenchman Louis Garrel was not quite what I expected it to be. Even after watching a completely innocent trailer, I subconsciously waited for another drama to unfold on the screen, in which it is often and quite convincingly shot. I thought I'd see incest, group sex, someone's death and a lot of Louis himself - fatal and lyrically smoking against the gray Parisian sky. Instead, I was confronted with a story about a strange, but kind Clément, who falls in love only with “abnormal” women, his sullen friend Abela and a beauty with a criminal past and expressive eyes of Monet. And I don't think there's a single Garrel cigarette in the whole movie.
So, the first amazing thing in the film is the self-irony of the director, who suddenly plays no intellectual young man, but a very down-to-earth and not the easiest to communicate parking worker trying to write books. No pathos or self-admiration. The second thing that struck me about the film is that the character is not the central character. Two friends don't fight for her. Rather, they need it to look at their relationship a little differently, understand them and ask each other if this friendship is really important to them. Plus, it is worth noting that the actress Golshifte Farahani looks quite unusual in the traditional role of the “girl between two guys” for French films. We can say that she somehow modernized this image with her eastern appearance and some closeness of the character – we do not learn much about her. However, as well as the male characters of the tape. We are told only the most general facts about them, without going into details, but this does not prevent us from feeling their humanity and realism. This is especially evident in scenes related to their work: whether it is Abel’s parking lot where he writes his notes, Mona’s diner or Clément’s set. By the way, I would especially like to mention the filming episode about the Paris Spring of 1968, which intentionally or unwittingly (most likely intentionally) looks like a reference to Bertolucci’s Dreamers and Garrel’s first major role.
In general, the movie was successful. This film is neither loud nor epic. I'd like to call it chamber. In literature it would be more a story than a novel. In Friends, there are many beautiful static, almost photographic shots, scenes and dialogues are not long, and the ending is probably not so important. However, I have not yet come to the conclusion, what is this film about in a global sense: love, friendship or maybe love for friends? And why in the Russian box office his name was translated not literally “Two friends”, but more generally: “Friends”.
Louis Garrel made a film about friendship, and how small the differences between true friendship and love, and maybe not at all. At first it seems that the two main characters, Abel and Clément, nothing can connect, but friends, as well as lovers, just do not become.
Abel is handsome, handsome, daring and determined so much that he can pull an unfamiliar girl out of the train car for his own whim. But the responsibility for his decisions by the age of thirty, he did not learn. But this defect, it would seem, should not prevent a high-aged young man with the soul of a poet and the expression of the eternal sufferer to turn the heads of the ladies. However, the proper impression, according to Abel himself, he does not make on a beautiful stranger (Emilyn Valade), not even on his own girl - a high school student. Only his friend looks at Abel with much-needed admiration. Clément is plump and clumsy, living in a world of his own illusions. It seems a miracle that he, with his unfitness for life and passion for self-mutilation, managed to live to the bald spots. Friendship with Abel, according to Clément, makes him feel better, more courageous, more determined and even a little more beautiful. So these two find in each other what they most lack. Long-term friendship gives a slack when Clément decides to introduce Abel to his unrequited lover Mona. Mona wears big earrings, paints her nails on the bus, knows a couple of vulgar gestures, gets drunk and pukes on the asphalt, and has to spend nights behind bars. And yet her face is like a holy face from a fresco. Garrel does not give the reasons why Mona was in a correctional facility, offering the viewer to think of her image. Is Mona’s imprisonment due to her being despised by her own mother and despising the likes of Abel, but one long night she needs him to want her, or is it something else? From this one can only guess whether Mona is motivated throughout the film by a desire for revenge, love, or simply boredom.
Two friends of their own whim ruin Monet’s life, and she ruins their friendship. Then begins a series of selfish actions, betrayals, attempts to justify the betrayer and the devotee, insane dances, laughter mixed with sorrow, getting rid of the torments of conscience by renouncing friendship and, of course, lies for salvation.
Garrel made a sincere, touching and very honest film. It certainly has drawbacks, for example, in one of the last scenes too clumsy, and it is not clear why, the emphasis is placed on the fact that the reasons why Mona was in prison are unknown not because of an oversight in the script, but according to the author’s idea. But for self-irony, lack of self-admiration and a wonderful taste for women and music, Garrell can be forgiven everything.
This movie is worth watching with a friend to remember how imperfect your own relationship, repent, ask forgiveness, and be grateful, even if mentally.
8 out of 10
The French believe that "third" is not superfluous
The story of the love triangle, invented by Louis Garrel and Christopher Honoret, is as old as the world and as attractive as France. The plot turned out to be almost "chamber", and did not require a lot of money from the producers for production. And the fact that the acting performance will be enchanting - no one, in general, did not doubt: Golshifte Farahani, Vincent Macken and himself Louis Garrel - the favorites of the European public. Each of these actors is able to play at least a stump in the forest - and it will be interesting to the viewer.
In an interview with the website KinoPoisk, Louis Garrel very correctly characterized the idea of his directorial debut: "The film "Friends" - a kind of manifesto of irresponsibility. And in this sense, everything came together: there is a lot of irresponsibility, the characters are fooled into glory and, without noticing it themselves, “sign” under the conditional manifesto “Love and Friendship in French”.
For all the ease (even carelessness) of film history, in the film “Friends” I was personally pleasantly struck by the depth of philosophical thoughts of Abel, performed by Louis Garrel. Thoughts are voiced as if “into the void” – a random girl at a gas station or a friend who listens but does not hear. However, this wise philosophy aptly falls into the main goal - the movie viewer is forced to learn what the author of the script wants to say (he is an actor, he is a director).
And yet, Louis Garrel’s film “Friends” is first of all frivolous “Madame France”! Let it be slightly provincial: with train stations, narrow streets, diners, fried chestnuts, desert embankments and second-rate hotels, but this is exactly the France you fall in love with at first sight and forever.
Therefore, the film "Friends" is recommended for viewing (first of all) to all fans of French melodramas and fans of Louis Garrel. And those who do not consider themselves to be such, I still advise you to watch this film - and rest your soul, and it is useful for general development.
8 out of 10
The best scene of Friends is Farahani’s bar dance, which is the most delicious of the highlights, and there are a lot of them in the film.
Coming out of the theater, a friend of mine said, ''The film is about nothing'. I agree with him, the film ' about nothing ' in the sense that he's not trying to tell you a thought, an idea he just wants to show people's relationships, that strange romance of people's lives and he manages it.
The trio from Golshifte Farahani, Vincent Maken and Louis Garrel worked honestly, I think they got high themselves while making the film. Louis Garrel is a director, despite the fact that he does not leave the screen. And this is his first feature-length film, for the debut it is just great.
Garrel pays homage 'Dreamers', there is a scene where our three heroes as extras participate in the shooting of the scene ' Red May' 1968, it was very happy. Like Eva Green in 'Dreamers', Farahani is charming, falling in love with herself from the start.
The film is very close to the situation it describes. In my life recently, a similar situation occurred in many respects, although it is regrettable that I associated myself with the hero of Vincent Maken.
I would recommend this film to everyone, but not as a must-see. Best Scene ' Friends' is Farahani's bar dance, the most delicious of the highlights, and there are a lot of them in the film.
Louis Garrel is an amazing actor and a subtle person who made a film not at all about the notorious love triangle. He made a stunningly beautiful picture about the infantile, reckless, but sincere friendship of two already grown men and that the first impression of a person can be deceptive.
There is a lot of tenderness (on the part of men), recklessness, stupidity and irresponsibility (on the part of all three main characters), but all this is an exaggerated life and emotions that we experience.
Disturbing, melodic, energetic, exciting, always beautiful and suitable for the general atmosphere of the film music; very beautiful plans, but made not like Almodóvar or Dolan (clip and too contrasting), but smooth, muted, even gentle, despite the combination of juicy red with dark blue. Everything in the film was thought out and made so that the viewer did not know to laugh, cry, or laugh again. The whole room laughed a lot and often, but still, this film tells us one thing: no matter what trials true friendship passes, it will still remain. Whatever your friends try to do for themselves.
Separately, I will tell you about the actors and the beautiful entry of each into his image. Vincent Macken, who was naive, sincere, simple and selfish in the role of Clément, who in his attitude to Mona and Abel revealed himself as a kind of big balding and bearded child who necessarily needs a nanny and a role model in one person. He also lacks love. Golshifte Farahani, so beautiful, tender and fragile, wanting to admire and protect her Mona, a little crazy, too emotional and unable to truly love. Finally, Louis Garrel, his Abel, who evokes the entire palette of emotions in the viewer: from disapproval and pity, to understanding and sincere sympathy. I guess for me, Abel was the main character of the film because almost everything he did was for the sake of friendship, which was at the head of everything completely unconsciously. After all, he is almost the entire film is the main egoist, right?
9 out of 10
You're my love, my friend. When I dream, I dream of you, a song by a girl of 8 women, François Ozon, played in my head as soon as I sat down to write a review. What for? I don't know.
Right to the point. The movie is charming. There's a point here, but I'll keep going. The story is as simple as two fingers: a fat loser falls in love with a beauty, she rejects him, he turns to a handsome friend for help, and then a test of friendship, a sense of guilt, a struggle, although not particularly stubborn, let’s be honest, with the resulting attraction, went on. In the case of Garrel's debutant, the situation is slightly complicated by the criminal component - our beautiful Eastern princess-criminal, serving time, in such an unusual for Russian reality "semi-free mode" - she spends the night in a correctional institution, and works in a station cafe.
Our story is full of absurdities, stupidities, inconsistencies, misunderstandings and at the same time just exuding the aroma of freedom and joy, some elusive and shameful, like a teenage girl, beauty. Cinematography is not full of any beautiful plans, but rather gravitates to documentary, hence the feeling that you too are so clumsy running through the streets of Paris with older children and playing love games, even if they give a little bitterness and sadness. Louis Garrel shows a story in which there is little seriousness, there is nothing epochal, there is no epic and action, it is French cinema, cozy, strange, but beautiful. Since the script was co-authored by Christoph Honore, dialogues are nowhere more sensual and strange, too, soulfulness with hidden irony is his style, but here the characters, fortunately or not, do not sing.
The music in the film is a bit, and it is very unexpected, but, oddly enough, very in the subject. “I fell in love with a dead boy” by Anthony & The Johnsons is expensive, and one scene of the indecently beautiful Golshifte Farahani dancing under King Krule, an honest pioneer – a very good reason to watch the film. What’s funny, about the same musical decision was in the recent “My King” with Cassel, in which Garrel also caught fire.
If I praise everything so much, why not 10 out of 10, very simply, there are so many moments in the film that are incomprehensible to our mentality and cause awkwardness: the level of frankness between friends, the general intimacy of what is happening, produces a feeling of awkwardness, you feel like a voyeur. And part of the motivations of the characters is so close and inexplicable to most adults and boring people that it seems inadequate, although in fact there is its own, albeit somewhat perverse logic, this is the merit of the director.
Louis Garrel, shot something not a masterpiece, but possessing the strongest charm, making you smile and touching some strings close to everyone, so honestly and fairly put.
8 out of 10
Thank you! "Mon amour, mon ami "
Quand je chante c'est pour toi.
The directorial debut of Louis Garrel for me, perhaps, quite like a bird, which was watched in “Friends” melancholy Clément and which in the cage threw up and down. I watched what was happening, first of all, with interest: what turn would happen next, who would stab whom first. And secondly, contrary to the commercial descriptions that read that “Friends” is a “light and ironic story” about a love triangle, I could not leave the astringent feeling of sadness.
In the picture, for me personally, there was a killing sense of countdown. Oh, these Frenchmen, how skillfully they manage to give in to the will of the moment! Yes, Mona didn't return to prison in time, yes, you can't write anything here, announce the fun for three and enjoy the elusive chemistry, which, by the way, does what she wants. But all this intoxicating recklessness cannot go on forever. And the closer the case moves to the final, the more confused this tangle of sadness and joy, seriousness and recklessness, quarrels and hugs, friendship and love.
The strange bond between the heroes I would call despair. The desperation of Mona, who in a childishly sincere letter confesses to her mother that she feared the freedom that awaits her in the near future after her release from prison. She tasted everything she could in the two days she spent with two ridiculous guys. A sense of despair can also be traced between long-time friends whose relationships are tested and seem to fail. No wonder Abel turns to Clément in the final: “I ask you: were we even friends?”
Clement is hysterical, threatening (now certainly!) to commit suicide. Reflecting Abel, drunk in the dubious company of the hotel owner. In my opinion, the only way out of this swampy despair, oddly enough, was found only by Mona, who is facing an increase in her sentence, but who knows that she is not afraid of anything anymore, and smiles at goodbye to the cute and ridiculous “friends”. But are you friends? The question is open.
You can’t tell a person that you are in love with him. I may not even want to know that.
The directorial debut of the French actor Louis Garrel was successful!
Behind the 32-year-old Louis more than 30 roles in famous films, the Cesar Award, and a crowd of fans. It is not surprising that in such a film family (father-director, grandfather-actor, mother and sister-actors), there was such a Louis.
In the new film, he not only acted as a director, but also performed one of the main roles. In the center of the plot is a love triangle, and Garrel ate a dog during his career on them. Therefore, the fact that he plays in his film is not just a whim, but a well-founded decision, because if you want it to be done well, do it yourself.
Before making this film, Louis made a short film with the same actors – Vincent Maken and Golshift Farahani, and then decided to bring the story to the end and shoot the full version of “Friends”. And you did the right thing.
The story turned out great. Farahani, with her atypical oriental beauty, came out as the perfect femme fatale, Vincent Makeni – a charming bogeyman, and Garrel himself – an intolerable melancholic. Together, the trio looks really charming. There are no other heroes in the film, they are not needed, the guys themselves perfectly hold your attention.
A separate point is worth noting the soundtrack, it turned out to be very stylish (with the musical taste of Louis everything is just fine). One scene with Mona dancing in a bar, what is worth, I want to watch again and again.
Also, you will remember funny dialogues, and developing on the run Garrel curls and much more.
Check it out, it’s better than reading.
The concept of love relationships in the view of people is constantly changing. At first, the family was proposed to consider the legal relationship between a man and a woman. European countries are now registering same-sex marriage. In the film, we go even further - now the main character kisses the two characters firmly in turn like the last time.
Motivation is clear. Free love, free relationships, breaking shackles, boundaries in the name of creating a world without control, where everyone would do what he wanted based only on his own conscience and integrity.
Garrel was already a hero of ' Triangle' Bertolucci in ' Dreamers'. Those guys were young, they were looking for a fair and better life for their country, they passionately loved the nascent cinema and sought to capture moments of life with comparisons with scenes from the movies they watched. Heroes ' Friends' older, they are some overripe, not realized, meaningless. The saleswoman Mona, who somehow got to prison, Clément, who suffers from unhappy love and constantly tries to kill himself, Abel, who works at the gas station and spends every day with different girls. They're all unhappy, hopeless. If this is the future 'Dreamers', let them rather die there, on the barricades, fighting for a better life than live their days like the main characters 'Friends'.
In the story, it is the love of the heroes ' Triangle' for each other and is the best in their lives, their salvation. But salvation is not for all, one will certainly be destroyed - this is the fate of most of the Triangles & #39; The heroes understand this, and since the outcast will have nothing in his life - there is no way out, no one wants to break the life of another, everything remains the same and they kiss three people.
For me, as a conservative citizen of central Russia, the topic seems petty. First, we are used to solving heart problems on our own. If there is another man between a Russian man and a woman he likes, then in most cases a Russian man will be determined to eliminate the opponent, there is no place for pity. Secondly, a conservative Russian woman will not kiss two men in turn, unless she is depraved, because she subconsciously has a Soviet past and future motherhood, in which the memory of such a thing will cause shame.
Farahani, of course, is very beautiful. She has trouble entering Iran for her explicit roles in several films. This movie starts with a scene in the shower. The scene in the shower can be shown in different ways: for example, from the back or close-ups of water running down the skin, here everything is simple: the girl washes herself in the shower with her face, yes, of course, we are all adults, art, etc. I just think that such scenes kill the intimacy and beauty of a woman. Of course, I assume that I can see under the clothes of this or that woman, I was not confused by the sight of the same naked Berko in & #39; My King' where it was shown how she washed in the hospital after an injury, and here why? Just? Reminiscent of protest for the sake of protest, or acting ' maturity' - willingness to appear naked, I think almost everyone can, it would make sense, here I do not see it.
To sum up, disappointed. I really like Garrel, but I expected more from him. But the girls in the room liked it - I heard a lot of positive feedback. All of the above is my opinion.