The Singer

The Singer, or Quand j'étais Chanteur, is, I suspect, one of those experiences which gets lost in translation. While there's really nothing specific it can be faulted on, it just refuses to gel, with the whole being rather less than the sum of its parts.

Chief amongst those parts is Gérard Depardieu, here turning in a magnificent performance as aging dance-hall singer Alain Moreau. It's a role that a less talented actor would struggle not to turn into a caricature, but Depardieu carries it off perfectly, with subtlety and restraint. He is matched by an equally nuanced performance from Cécile de France as Marion, the young woman for whom le chanteur falls.

The film is about human relationships, about genuine, damaged people and the interactions between them, all built around music, the structure interwoven with song. A one night stand between Marion and Moreau evolves, despite initial reluctance on Marion's part, into a relationship of sorts. With Marion acting as Moreau's estate agent, character dynamics are given ample room to play themselves out, as the couple view one empty house after another. At times the setting and cinematography recall Last Tango In Paris, though the relationship between the characters is wildly different.

While the camerawork is never particularly exciting or dynamic, it doesn't need to be. The film is as straightforward and unpretentious as the man Moreau, who has no delusions of grandeur and simply adores doing what he does. A tale of love and life, then, wonderfully well acted and told without elaboration or embellishment, all the while underpinned by songs whose lyrics are strikingly relevant to events as they unfold.

So where does it go wrong? Well, it doesn't, really. It just never quite goes perfectly right. Perhaps it's that the characters just aren't quite as sympathetic as they need to be for the story to work. Perhaps it's the language barrier. What I suspect is that it's a cultural gap - the film relies so heavily on its songs that if you can't bring yourself to care about them you'll have a hard time engaging with the movie as a whole. Whatever it is it's most likely a subjective phenomenon, so don't take my word for it. Try it for yourself and it may hit all the right notes.