The Hairdresser's Husband (1990)
The film begins with 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. We are unsure what Antoine has done with his life, however, we know he has fulfilled his childhood ambition, to marry a hairdresser.
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I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
This is a strange little film. Intriguing to say the least. A man sees a woman he loves, she is a hairdresser, he then marries her hence Hairdresser's Husband. It is well shot and the strange part comes because he asks the hairdresser to marry him the first time he meets her.There is an intense love between them and this plays out to the end of the film. Not a huge amount happens in the film but it is just a beautiful little film to watch. If you watch it with a Hairdresser you love then this may pay dividends. You can ask her to marry you straight after the film because with this film love at first sight and marrying almost immediately is the only option.I can't really see this happening in reality to two people not so quick as this but when love shows it's beautiful face I suppose you just have to seize the moment. Great film!
I would rate this as one of the top ten movies I have ever seen. It is a perfect little movie: a visual poem. Surprising, bittersweet. Heartbreaking and mysterious, Rocquefort's performance is masterful and secures his place as one of cinemas most expressive actors. The lead actress is lovely and perfectly cast; she does not hit a false note in her performance. The emotional pallet runs from hysterically funny to wistful to heart-rending. One of the great love stories that rewards multiple viewings. It never does what you expect it to. But when it turns you realize the choice was right on target. I rank it up there with My Life as a Dog and Cinema Paridiso. It is the type of movie that makes me fall in love with cinema all over again.
The French are the masters of melancholy. I don't think I've ever been more pleased by sadness than after watching this beautiful film. A little boy obsesses over his hairdresser as a child and then finally fulfills his fantasy nearly forty years later when he marries a stunningly gorgeous owner of a barber shop on a whim. The story is simple, and though it may leave some viewers wanting more in terms of character development, it will play well if you see it as a fable. The two are madly in love with each other and their whole life revolves around the barber shop and their customers. Quirky humor, insightful observances about everyday life and people's behavior, and superb photography (especially of the luminous actress playing the hairdresser) make this a highly enjoyable film to watch. This is a wonderful look at how lust can grow into love, and how love can turn tragic and then hopeful again. Bravo to director Leconte. C'est la vie!
This movie made me feel righteous, and young again, as if I were in high school. It made me remember how much fun romantic love and theatre were when I first encountered them there. But then I remembered being warned by teachers about how love and theatre should be serious undertakings, because they were essentially dangerous. Even in my literature class, sexual morality was emphasized. Whenever a heroine was involved in passionate sex, two things seemed to happen. First, her lover left her. Second, she killed herself. Tolstoi's Anna Karenina, Flaubert's Madame Emma Bovary, Shakespeare's Juliet and Zola's Therese Racquin all killed themselves. But perhaps because of my stagecrew teacher, on the other hand, who joked a lot -- and was fond of Wagnerian music (don't ask me why) -- I was familiar with Brunhilde, who also killed herself. Her reason was religious, though. The other ladies couldn't bear living in social disgrace, but Brunhilde wanted Odin (her spiritual father) and the people who worshipped him to know that dying in love was as honorable as dying in battle. Patrice Leconte uses Brunhilde as a dramatic model in this movie, "The Hairdresser's Husband." Like the supernaturally powerful warrior Brunhilde, Leconte's hairdresser (Mathilde) wields a knife. "The point was sharp and true, a fearsome cutting blade," Wagner said. Mathilde kills herself differently than Wagner's Brunhilde did, but the meaning is the same. Mathilda throws herself into a surging river from a bridge, but surely this is meant to be symbolic because there is a bridge in France called "Brunhilde's bridge." Moralists will be completely confused by this movie, and selfish people will resent it. I loved it, and hope you do too.Mary Cadney, Oklahoma City