Les chansons d'amour 2007

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: [Director Christophe] Honore has proven you can make a movie musical in which style doesn't upstage content -- a movie musical that blossoms from the inside out. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Love Songs finds the magic that the great screen musicals have -- the way a sad song can nonetheless leave an audience happy, or the way two voices blending seems to create something so much bigger. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: Love Songs is definitely daring, but too much of it seems calculated to lead up to a final line about how to guard against grief: 'Love me less, but love me a long time.' Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: You'll laugh. You'll swoon. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: Whereas Umbrellas of Cherbourg has become timeless in its depiction of romance, Love Songs strikes a strongly contemporary note in its calm acceptance of the fluidity of desire and emotion. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Boy loves girl and sings about it, boy loses girl to tragedy and sings about it, then boy considers the possibility of new love with a new boy and sings about it -- and the whole thing works, in a delirious French way. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: Honore is not without talent, but Love Songs adds up to considerably less than the sum of its references. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: For a film roiling with so much turmoil of the heart, Love Songs generates dismayingly little emotional frisson. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: So French you may have to buy your ticket in euros, Christophe Honore's musical trifle feels ready-made for emotionally woozy undergraduates. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: This inexpressibly tender and lovely picture suggests that [Honore's] developing into a major talent, one who can make the spirit of classic French movies come alive in a new world. Read more

David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle: As dark as these themes seem, in Honore's capable hands, they become almost frothy and the perfect elements for a surprisingly joyous musical. Read more

Globe and Mail: Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Honore's Demy-glazed attempt to stage a contemporary romantic musical rarely attains the genre's giddy heights or sense of genuine catharsis. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: The songs are poor, the faddishness (folk parading books passim, a la Godard) and Garrel's performance are irritating, and only Chiara Mastroianni as a grieving sister brings any real sense of conviction to her role. Read more

Jay Weissberg, Variety: Conceived by Honore as a tribute to a dead friend, the helmer is perhaps too close to his subject, never quite able to bring himself to linger on the grief that should be at pic's core. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Yes, it's weird. But it's wild card weird, with that thrill of never knowing what's coming next or when these Parisians are going to get musical on us. Read more