{"id":11729,"date":"2017-01-19T20:00:08","date_gmt":"2017-01-20T02:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/?p=11729"},"modified":"2017-01-17T10:43:30","modified_gmt":"2017-01-17T16:43:30","slug":"same-old-song-1997-alain-resnais","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/archives\/11729","title":{"rendered":"Same Old Song (1997, Alain Resnais)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I probably say this about every Resnais film, but this has got to be the most wonderful Resnais film. One of his late-period intersecting-lives ensemble pieces, it’s a tribute to Dennis Potter, so the characters lipsync classic pop songs – but despite the fun tunes it’s ultimately a downbeat drama about depression.<\/p>\n

Written by two of its lead actors: Jean-Pierre Bacri (balding Nicolas, back in Paris after years away and looking for the perfect apartment) and Agn\u00e8s Jaoui (Camille, a tour guide who reminds me of Anna Kendrick).<\/p>\n

Resnais faves Sabine Az\u00e9ma (Camille’s sister Odile) and Pierre Arditi play husband and wife – though he’s cheating, and is trying to tell her that he’s leaving.<\/p>\n

Odile with her husband:<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n

Odile with her sister:<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n

Andr\u00e9 Dussollier is a realtor showing flats to Nicolas, stalking Camille on her city tours, and working for Marc (Lambert Wilson), who begins dating Andr\u00e9’s beloved Camille while showing larger flats to her and Odile.<\/p>\n

Camille and Marc:<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n

Camille and Andr\u00e9:<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n

Ultimately at least Camille, Nicolas, Andr\u00e9 and Pierre are somewhere between generally unhappy and clinically depressed. Odile buys a place from Marc and at the housewarming party Arditi plans to walk out (after closing on a new house?) and Andr\u00e9 turns on his boss.<\/p>\n

When things start to go bad at the party, sea creatures appear over the picture:<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Favorite tunes included Marc’s confident women-chasing theme song “J’aime Les Filles” by Jacques Dutronc and Nicolas’s whiny hypochondriac theme song “Je ne suis pas bien portant” by Gaston Ouvrard.<\/p>\n

A hit in France, it won seven C\u00e9sar awards, though Resnais lost the director award to Luc Besson of all the damn things. Played in Berlin with Jackie Brown<\/a><\/em> and The Big Lebowski<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Nicolas with his estranged wife Jane Birkin:<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n

Marc all alone:<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n

Resnais in the NY Times:<\/p>\n

Potter was extremely pessimistic. His are films of a man who has suffered a great deal, who creates characters who are paranoid. The songs are in total contrast with the situations in the film. We tried to have the song always come from inside the head of the character, to reflect the moment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I probably say this about every Resnais film, but this has got to be the most wonderful Resnais film. One of his late-period intersecting-lives ensemble pieces, it’s a tribute to Dennis Potter, so the characters lipsync classic pop songs – but despite the fun tunes it’s ultimately a downbeat drama about depression. Written by two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[451,10,1259,162,80],"class_list":["post-11729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie","tag-1990s","tag-alain-resnais","tag-andre-dussolier","tag-dennis-potter","tag-musical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11729"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11810,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11729\/revisions\/11810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}