Yann Samuell

[Cinesimilitude]

just watched Love Me If You Dare for the first time, and I'm a little confused.

SpoilerShow

do they infact get out of the cement at the end? and become those old people? or do they die as 35 yr olds?or is it supposed to be left up to the viewer?

[lord_clyde]

From IMDB:

As adults, best friends Julien and Sophie continue the odd game they started as children -- a fearless competition to outdo one another with daring and outrageous stunts. While they often act out to relieve one another's pain, their game might be a way to avoid the fact that they are truly meant for one another.

SncDthMnky, is this worth seeing?

[Pinback]

Love Me If You Dare was much more interesting than the trailers led me to expect. I thought it was great: offbeat, with some very dark comedy, but at its core the film is deeply, truly romantic. Marion Cotillard was superb, too.

just watched this for the first time, and I'm a little confused.

SpoilerShow

do they infact get out of the cement at the end? and become those old people? or do they die as 35 yr olds?or is it supposed to be left up to the viewer?

I think your confusion is appropriate.

SpoilerShow

The epilogue (featuring the elderly couple) is supposed to cast ambiguity on the preceding events. I really enjoyed the brief eruption of fantasy at the end, especially the montage of the two characters kissing, from all the times throughout the film when they should have got together but didn't.

[Dylan]

Love Me If You Dare was one of the strangest films I've seen in recent months, but I didn't think it was that good, more of an interesting failure. It's a decent premise, but it's completely unrestrained and busy, trying desperately (and distractingly) to be like "Amelie" (and Jeunet is one of my favorite directors), but failing at that miserably, not even touching Jeunet's delicate handling of a narrative 'pot purée'. There's no sense of structure and no seeming point to the film's bouncy nature. The first part was an Amelie rip-off meets kids shows and a bit of general obscurity, the second part (which dissolved from them sleeping in a bed as kids to them sleeping in a bed as teens) is intensely scattered (and making almost no sense), with dares more and more outrageous into their high school years. Are they doing this because they're in love? I guess so, but the film doesn't bother to give us any insight on that, or exactly why they're doing what they're doing. They're just there, having fun, doing terribly crazy things. The last third (after a ten year gap where the leads make a dare not to see each other for ten years) gets a bit better, and though it makes just as much sense as the rest of the film, there are some fine scenes, and there's even a lovingly pretentious Godard-like narration (the part where the lead is speeding in his car being pursued by the cops is kind of a blast). The creepy, albeit absurd, ending seems like the right way to leave it at until the filmmaker adds on another possible conclusion (which is what is at question here), which I just felt was obvious and kind of ruined what we're supposed to assume "really happened". Overall, it's an interesting failure, and a film orgy full of potentially interesting ideas, but sadly none of them are explored, and the end result is a rather large, but very watchable, mess. Gorgeous Philippe Rombi score, I must add, and Marion Cotillard (one of my favorite actresses of today) is indeed a lovely presence.

Dylan

[Cinesimilitude]

Yeah, The Narrative when Julien is in the car is awesome.

As with many films, after seeing it, my 20/20 hindsight leads me to believe I could make it better, but in answer to the first question, Yes, It is worth seeing. especially since amazon dropped the price form around 25 down to 11.99 which was the factor that made me purchase it.

Actually, I think it's brilliant, just a little too restrained in terms of where it could go with the narrative and plot.

[numediaman2]

Love Me If You Dare has been playing on the Sundance Channel for a while, but I just checked and it is not scheduled for the rest of the month.

This is one of the films I recorded at a time when a lot of films were flying past me (I had just received the Kino Kieslowski box set, as well as some others).

I must say, I hate the U.S. title. Jeux d'enfants is a better and more accurate title IMO.

[Dylan]

A few months ago Love Me If You Dare was playing on the Sundance Channel, but in pan/scan.

[Cinesimilitude]

I watched Love Me If You Dare again last night, and I was thinking...

SpoilerShow

What if the old couple at the end Is some sort of interpretation of after-life? The contrast is very high in these scenes, which leads me to believe he wanted it to seem ethereal, and other worldly. maybe Julien and Sophie's heaven is just a never ending game.

It's too bad there isn't more of Cotillard's work on disc. she's beautiful, and an excellent actress.

[Antoine Doinel]

My Sassy Girl

"I get you. I see right through to the truth of you."

[Anhedionisiac]

Crikey. God knows the original looks bad enough on its own but I'm downright sickened by the utter abhorrment that is this tripe

[Michael Kerpan]

I never saw any virtue in the original My Sassy Girl other than the vitality of its female lead. It struck me as very poorly written and directed (and subsequent films by the same director have done little to change my mind).

[domino harvey]

I can’t believe we have a thread for this director! Saw Jeux d’enfants last night, a film which inexplicably received a somewhat wide release in the states in order to cash in on Amelie fever before disappearing forever. And jeez, you could not pick a more unpleasant and dissimilar film once one looks past the deliberate attempts to resemble the inspiration stylistically. I think Dylan more or less nailed the film’s problems, but it really cannot be overstated how unlikable and unpleasant the two romantic leads are. I kept thinking while watching that the film needed to lean more into what psychopaths they are, and then the movie does and I sadly realized that still wasn’t enough. Proof that armchair “fixes” to imperfect movies just bring out other deficiencies! The film’s myopia for the Canet and Cotillard pairing also means it does not bother to consider for even a second the collateral damage these two inflict on their adult partners (and kids!), far more interested in what are essentially self-inflicted wounds on each other. This is an intriguing idea for a film, but I think there was just no way to make it into a successful film, only an annoying one