Jealousy (2013)

Directed by: Philippe Garrel
Country: France

Movie Review: French filmmaker Philippe Garrel, continues his stories about lovers, encounters, and irregular relationships in “Jealousy”, a drama shot in a balanced black-and-white and starring Louis Garrel, his son and frequent first choice, and Anna Mouglalis. The script was inspired on Philippe’s father, the actor Maurice Garrel. By comparison, and leaving the very unique “Le Revelateur” aside, I would say that “Jealousy” is better than his last couple works, “Frontier of the Dawn” and “A Burning Hot Summer”, but less interesting in concept than “Regular Lovers” or “J’entends Plus la Guitarre”. The film starts with a separation between the struggling actor, Louis (Garrel), and Clothilde, the mother of his daughter. In the next sequence of images, Louis looks very happy near his new girlfriend, the jobless and emotionally inconstant actress, Claudia (Mouglalis). Their attachment seems quite solid but the truth is that both of them flirt with others. While he resists to his theater colleague, Lucie, and other conquests, she is decided to get a job and a bright, spacious new apartment. With that in mind, she gets closer to a man who promises her everything she wants, leading to a painful rupture with Louis that almost ends up tragically. In gorgeously languid tones, them and us, never know where the lies end and the truth begin, a suspended state that keeps us wanting more, even after the end, where we glimpse that only family and theater can make Louis move on with his life. “Jealousy” conveys a constant sadness and doesn’t reinvent the formula, representing a very plausible slice of real life without losing the charm along the way.