Loulou

To reduce this story to the vernacular, it’s about a slut and a slob. Nelly (Isabelle Huppert) is a career woman who gives up her businessman lover for endless days and nights with Louis, nicknamed Loulou (Gerard Depardieu), a sexist boozer who is in and out of jail. Hailed by critics upon its initial release for its raw sexuality (upper crust critics seem to have this notion that the proletarian lout who comes to maturity sans Freud’s theories of sexuality is automatically an animal in the boudoir), a few shots of Depardieu’s beefy buns seem to be the focus of critical attention here. The problem is that Loulou is neither O’Neill’s "hairy ape" nor even Rousseau’s romantic savage. He’s a cretin, who’s goals, hopes, aspirations, etc. we never know. Ditto for Nelly; as she bounces back and forth between her former lover and Loulou, she remains a complete cipher–and a sullen cipher at that. Director Maurice Pialat is clearly not trying to make a message movie–this is his version of lowlife seen under the microscope. But there’s no sense of dissection, or direction; we’re left watching a couple of naked bores intertwined artistically (?) across a cheap bed. So what? Not recommended. (R. Pitman)