Maurice Pialat’s domestic melodrama, Loulo, starring Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu, premiered in competition at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.
In a disco with her husband André, who owns a small advertising agency in which she works, Nelly meets Loulou, who is just out of jail and drunk.
She spends the night with him in a hotel. The next day, André orders her out, so she moves into a hotel room with Loulou, whom she supports as he does not believe in the notion of work.
When she becomes pregnant, she rents a small apartment. Soon, the place filled with his criminal friends, who one night take her on a burglary.
Her well-off brother tries to insert sense, but she just wants Loulou and their forthcoming child. When
Loulou and his gang take her to Sunday lunch with his mother, and there is a frightening confrontation with his psychotic brother-in-law who starts firing a shotgun.
Realizng the impossibility of having the child in such a context, Nelly has an abortion, which hurts Loulou.
However, the film ends just as it began, with the two staggering home drunk.
Pialat treats his material in a challenging manner, seldom resorting to the level of cheap melodrama, and he gets good performances from its lead actors.
Cast:
Isabelle Huppert as Nelly
Gérard Depardieu as Loulou
Guy Marchand as André
Humbert Balsan as Michel
Bernard Tronczak as Rémy
Christian Boucher as Peirot
Frédérique Cerbonnet as Dominique
Jacqueline Dufranne [fr] as Mémère
Willy Safar as Jean-Louis
Agnès Rosier as Cathy
Patricia Coulet as Marité
Jean-Claude Meilland as Jean-Claude, le gars du casse
Patrick Playez as Thomas
Gérald Garnier as Lulu
Credits:
Directed by Maurice Pialat
Written by Arlette Langmann, Pialat
Cinematography Pierre-William Glenn; Jacques Loiseleux
Edited by Sophie Coussein, Yann Dedet
Music by Philippe Sarde
Distributed by Gaumont Distribution
Loulou (1980): Pialat’s Melodtrama, Starring Isabelle Huppert, Gérard Depardieu
Loulou
Maurice Pialat’s domestic melodrama, Loulo, starring Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu, premiered in competition at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.
In a disco with her husband André, who owns a small advertising agency in which she works, Nelly meets Loulou, who is just out of jail and drunk.
She spends the night with him in a hotel. The next day, André orders her out, so she moves into a hotel room with Loulou, whom she supports as he does not believe in the notion of work.
When she becomes pregnant, she rents a small apartment. Soon, the place filled with his criminal friends, who one night take her on a burglary.
Her well-off brother tries to insert sense, but she just wants Loulou and their forthcoming child. When
Loulou and his gang take her to Sunday lunch with his mother, and there is a frightening confrontation with his psychotic brother-in-law who starts firing a shotgun.
Realizng the impossibility of having the child in such a context, Nelly has an abortion, which hurts Loulou.
However, the film ends just as it began, with the two staggering home drunk.
Pialat treats his material in a challenging manner, seldom resorting to the level of cheap melodrama, and he gets good performances from its lead actors.
Cast:
Isabelle Huppert as Nelly
Gérard Depardieu as Loulou
Guy Marchand as André
Humbert Balsan as Michel
Bernard Tronczak as Rémy
Christian Boucher as Peirot
Frédérique Cerbonnet as Dominique
Jacqueline Dufranne [fr] as Mémère
Willy Safar as Jean-Louis
Agnès Rosier as Cathy
Patricia Coulet as Marité
Jean-Claude Meilland as Jean-Claude, le gars du casse
Patrick Playez as Thomas
Gérald Garnier as Lulu
Credits:
Directed by Maurice Pialat
Written by Arlette Langmann, Pialat
Cinematography Pierre-William Glenn; Jacques Loiseleux
Edited by Sophie Coussein, Yann Dedet
Music by Philippe Sarde
Distributed by Gaumont Distribution
Release date: Sept 3, 1980
Running time: 110 minutes