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Loulou |
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Film poster
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Blast from the Past
Maurice Pialat’s 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 (Huppert) meets Loulou (Depardieu), 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 idea of work.
When she gets pregnant, she rents a small apartment, but, soon, the place is 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, 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
