Main Cast: Jean Rochefort, Anna Galiena, Roland Bertin, Henry Hocking, Maurice Chevit, Philippe Clevenot
Release Year: 1990
Country: FR
Run Time: 84 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Erotic, funny, and very French, this film relies heavily on the critically-acclaimed performance of Jean Rochefort. As a child, Antoine (Rochefort) was obsessed with the ample beautician who cut his hair, and since then, his single ambition in life has been to marry a hairdresser. As an adult, Antoine meets a woman (Anna Galiena) who seems to be the perfect incarnation of his childhood fantasies. He promptly marries her, then spends most of his daylight hours sitting in her shop, watching her every move. They are so crazy in love that some days they close up early to be alone. As time passes the shop becomes their entire world. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
Review
Patrice Leconte's bittersweet romance is modestly proportioned with an economical prologue rooting Antoine's erotic obsession with women who can cut and shampoo his hair in a specific series of episodes from his youth, followed by one of the briefest (but amazingly believable) courtships in movie history, followed by a deliriously happy marriage, and then a wrap-up that observant viewers can see coming a mile away. Jean Rochefort, as the sad-eyed, placid Antoine, makes a wonderful observer, and as his main observee, Anna Galiena throws off the requisite sexual sparks without losing a certain kind of demureness. Leconte's use of overhead shots inside the barber shop offers another layer to the narrative; though this is a first-person film all the way, with Antoine offering voice-overs all the way through the story, we are offered a view of events he could never have. This sets up a satisfying final shot. Though Leconte has gone on to make more ambitious films (Ridicule, The Girl on the Bridge), this film still stands as his most perfectly realized and executed work. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
The film begins in a flashback from the titular character, Antoine. We are introduced to his fixation with female hairdressers which began at a young age. The film uses flashbacks throughout and there are frequent parallels drawn with the past. Though Antoine tells Mathilde that 'the past is dead', his life is evidence that on some level the past repeats itself. As a young boy he fantasised about a hairdresser who committed suicide and as a man in his 50s he begins an affair with a hairdresser which ends after ten years in her suicide. However there are differences, Mathilde commits suicide because she is so happy she is afraid of the happiness she has found with Antoine ending.
We are unsure what Antoine has done with his life, however we know he has fulfilled his childhood ambition, to marry a haidresser. The reality proves to be every bit as wonderful as the fantasy and the two enjoy an enigmatic, enclosed and enchanting relationship. The final sequence shows Antoine, in the salon, dancing to Eastern music just as he has done throughout his life. The last line is that the hairdresser is coming though what this means is up to interpretation.
The soundtrack ([1]) was composed by Michael Nyman and also contains a great deal of Middle Eastern popular music. It was first released as an album in Japan by Soundtrack Listeners Communications (SLC) September 21, 1992 and has subsequently been released elsewhere.
Viens chez moi, j'habite chez une copine (1981) ·Ma femme s'appelle reviens (1982) ·Circulez y a rien à voir! (1983) ·Les Spécialistes (1985) ·Tandem (1987) ·Monsieur Hire (1988)
1990s
The Hairdresser's Husband (1990) ·Tango (1993) ·Yvonne's Perfume (1994) ·Les grands ducs (1996) ·Ridicule (1996) ·Une chance sur deux (1998) ·The Girl on the Bridge (1999)
