The French film L'Amant d'un jour was shown in the U.S. with the translated title Lover for a Day. It was co-written and directed by Philippe Garrel.
This movie has an interesting concept. Jeanne is a young woman who is kicked out of her boyfriend's apartment. She has nowhere to go, so she ends up at her father's apartment. No problem, except that her father is living with a young woman named Ariane, who is about Jeanne's age. It's interesting that Jeanne is played by Esther Garrel, who is director Garrel's daughter.
The two women get along well enough, and, except for a very dramatic scene, not much happens in the movie. It's very French. For, example, Ariane goes to the boyfriend's apartment to pick up Jeanne's belongings. She and the boyfriend have a very polite conversation, and they end up saying goodbye with the French double kiss. Characters in a U.S. film wouldn't be that casual and polite in that situation. Apparently it works in France.
We saw this film at the wonderful Dryden Theatre in Rochester's George Eastman Museum. It's a privilege to have a theater that shows a retrospective series of films by a French director who's not exactly a household name in the U.S.
Sadly, we just couldn't get into Garrel's style of filmmaking. The staff who introduce the films go on and on about his talent, but my wife and I weren't impressed. Maybe you do, indeed, need to be French to appreciate Garrel.
Almost all of the action in this film takes place indoors, so the movie will work well on the small screen.
P.S. The movie is loaded with sex. For better or for worse, most of the coupling takes place with the man and woman standing up in lavatories that are only semi-private. Not a great basis for eroticism.
