Two couples, one beginning and the other unraveling, form the basis of famed director Philippe Garrel’s latest film. Frédéric and Angèle (Louis Garrel, the director’s son, and Monica Bellucci) are married and miserable; Elisabeth and Paul (Jérome Robart and Céline Sallette) have just fallen in dewy young love. Together they share an apartment in Rome.
Garrel wants his quartet to illustrate large points about love and friendship, art and politics. There are spirited moments, notably Angèle’s torrid dance with another man at a party. But the film’s observations are surprisingly retrograde, even absurd.
Elisabeth and Paul’s romance is conveyed via post-coital discussions of suicide and conversation starters like “I believe in God.” Frédéric, a wealthy painter who spends his free time seething, is obsessively jealous of his wife. He copes by visiting hookers, prompting Angèle to say resignedly that it’s “different for men.” When one character becomes pregnant, her partner tells her, “You do all the child care,” and that passes without a murmur of dissent.
Then there’s Paul remarking, on the terrace of Frédéric’s spectacular apartment, “I couldn’t live without hope of the revolution.” Unfortunately, he’s serious; no character ever exhibits much in the way of self-aware wit.
It’s apt that the Rome weather in this stodgy film, contrary to the title, seems quite temperate.