A Faithful Man (2018) Kino Lorber/Comedy-Drama RT: 75 minutes No MPAA rating (thematic elements, language) Director: Louis Garrel Screenplay: Louis Garrel and Jean-Claude Carriere Music: Philippe Sarde Cinematography: Irina Lubtchansky Release date: September 13, 2019 (Philadelphia, PA) Cast: Louis Garrel, Laetitia Casta, Lily-Rose Depp, Joseph Engel, Diane Courseille, Vladislav Galard. Box Office: $1.9M (US) Spoken in French w/English subtitles
Rating: *** ½
I fear that many of my fellow Americans will be put off by the French-language film A Faithful Man due to its classification as a romantic comedy. It’s NOT like the rom-coms we’re used to seeing at the multiplex. Maybe it’s time for a discussion about the differences between American and French rom-coms. The main difference is American rom-coms tend to rely on concept while French ones are more situational. By way of a recent example, I’ll use this year’s Isn’t It Romantic starring Rebel Wilson. She plays a cynical non-romantic who gets hit on the head and wakes up in a world modeled after the rom-com movies she detests. That’s a concept. In A Faithful Man, a man’s life becomes complicated when an old girlfriend comes back into his life. That’s a situation. See what I’m talking about?
Another big difference is that American rom-coms tend to be populated by character types while French ones have characters. To illustrate this, let’s go back a bit to the 80s and Some Kind of Wonderful. In it, “the nice guy” pursues “the hot girl” without noticing his “best female friend” has a thing for him. This is the template for many an American rom-com. In A Faithful Man, we get actual characters, fully realized ones that could actually exist in the real world. Finally, there’s the style of humor. The comedy in American rom-coms is typically broad whereas it’s more subtle in French-made ones. I’ll come back to this last point momentarily.
The death of a spouse may not sound like comedy material, but director/co-writer Louis Garrel makes it work in A Faithful Man. He plays Abel who, at the beginning of the movie, is informed by his girlfriend Marianne (Casta, Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life) that she’s been cheating on him with his best friend Paul, that she’s pregnant with his child, plans to marry him in ten days time and would he kindly move out of their apartment. All things considered, he takes it rather well save for a tumble down the stairs. Nine years pass until Abel sees Marianne again. It seems that Paul has died quite suddenly. Abel attends the funeral where he reconnects with Marianne who now has an 8YO son Joseph (Engel). They get together a couple of weeks later and decide to give it another go.
Resuming his old relationship with Marianne brings with it a major complication in the form of Paul’s younger sister Eve (Depp, The King) who’s had a thing for Abel since she was a child. In those days, she used to secretly follow him and take pictures of him on her phone. He never noticed her because she was a child, but that should change now that she’s grown up. She still likes him and wants to be with him so she confronts Marianne and asks if she’ll let her have Abel. A bemused Marianne asks what would happen if she says no. Eve replies, “Then it’s war.”
Here’s another area in which French rom-coms differ from ours. In an American rom-com, all sorts of Bride Wars-type shenanigans would ensue with the two women pulling all sorts of dirty tricks on each other. In all likelihood, we’d be talking about a mean-spirited comedy that leaves a bitter aftertaste. That is NOT what goes down in A Faithful Man. I don’t want to give it away, but let’s just say it’s handled in a distinctively European way. It also illustrates my earlier point about broad vs. subtle humor. Instead of pratfalls and a lot of bedroom farce-style gags (e.g. sneaking around, hiding in closets and under beds), the humor is inherent in the situation and the characters. The people in A Faithful Man are unique without being cartoons. Take the boy Joseph. To call him precocious would be an understatement. This kid is into police procedurals. He hangs out at the local police station where he asks questions about investigative techniques and such. He tries to convince Abel that his mother murdered his father. He’s a little scary, to be honest. I wouldn’t say he’s evil like that rotten little brat in Three Peaks, but he’s no angel either. He’s an unusually intelligent child reacting to a situation over which he has no control. It’s to the young actor’s credit that Joseph is a credible character. It’s to Garrel’s credit as a filmmaker that this aspect of A Faithful Man elicits laughs rather than chills.
All of the central performances in A Faithful Man are terrific. Garrel uses his sultry good looks to full effect as a man in an unusual romantic situation. His is an understated performance, especially in his voiceovers. After all that business with Marianne at the beginning, he quietly characterizes their exchange as “brutal”. If you understand the French mindset, you understand that they’re like that which is why his comment is funny. Garrel has great chemistry with Casta whose character isn’t necessarily painted as a villain. Sure, she cheated on Abel in the past and wants him back now that the other man is dead. She’s definitely a head case and a bit of a manipulator too. It’s she who comes up with the unique solution to the Eve situation. Speaking of which, Depp does fine work in the role. Her character is also pretty out there. In the US, she’s what we call a stalker. I’m sure that’s what she’d be called in France too, but at least she’s civilized about it meaning no boiled bunnies or kidnapped kids.
The more I think about A Faithful Man, the more I like it. It’s so very French. It benefits greatly from a pleasing score by Philippe Sarde. The city of Paris, as usual, is a pretty place for lovers. What makes it all come together so well is Garrel’s light touch. Its short running time (a mere 75 minutes) gives it the feel of a brief romantic encounter. It’s a sweet, amusing little movie that goes down as easily as a vanilla soufflé.
