REGULAR LOVERS (Les Amants Réguliers)

REGULAR LOVERS (Les Amants Re- guliers), Philippe Garrel’s meditation on 1968 Paris has an intoxicating density and rhythm. The incomparable William Lubtchansky’s luminous, breathtaking photography is wondrous and beguiling (Screen International) Paris, 1969. After having taken part in the student uprisings of May ’68, a group of youngsters abandon themselves to the fumes of opium. At the centre of the group a doomed love grows between a 20-year-old boy, Francois (Louis Garrel) and a young girl Lilie (Clothilde Hesme), both involved in the revolt. Philippe Garrel was himself 20 in ’68. He was already making poetic films, and had shot two shorts (Les Enfants désaccordés, and Droit de visite), two feature films (Anémone, and Marie pour mémoire) and a number of programmes for television, on rock music, girls, and the work of Jean-Luc Godard. Apparently Philippe Garrel filmed with colleagues during the May’s events but the film was lost in the processing lab and will never be seen again. Jean-Luc Godard recalls some shots from them, saying 'the only ones in which you saw the riot police full face, in dark, austere 35mm, at a time when everyone was using soft-focus 16mm'.