La moustache (2005)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Emmanuel Carrère

Writers:

Jérôme Beaujour (writer)
Emmanuel Carrère (novel)

Release Date:

6 July 2005 (Belgium)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery

Plot:

Marc is sitting in his bath one morning and asks his wife, "how would you feel if I shaved off my mustache?" She doesn't think it's a great idea...

Plot Keywords:

Mustache | Hong Kong | Shaving | Escape | Bathtub Scene

Awards:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Vincent Lindon	...	Marc Thiriez
Emmanuelle Devos	...	Agnès Thiriez
Mathieu Amalric	...	Serge Schaeffer
Hippolyte Girardot	...	Bruno
Cylia Malki	...	Samira
Macha Polikarpova	...	Nadia Schaeffer
Fantine Camus	...	Lara Schaeffer
Frédéric Imberty	...	Patron café
Brigitte Bémol	...	Policière
Denis Menochet	...	Serveur
Franck Richard	...	Chauffeur taxi
Elizabeth Marre	...	Hôtesse Roissy
Teresa Li	...	Caissière ferry-boat
Au Hin Wai	...	Contrôleur passeport
Kwok Chan Chung	...	Employé aéroport

Also Known As:

The Moustache (Australia) (TV title)

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | English | Cantonese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Brazil:18 | Sweden:7 | Finland:K-7 | Argentina:13 | Hungary:14 | France:U | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva)

Filming Locations:

Aéroport de Paris, Roissy-en-France, Val-d'Oise, France

Company:

Les Films des Tournelles

Goofs:

Continuity: In several of the scenes it appears that Lindon has a small cut on his forehead - but it keeps disappearing and reappearing randomly.

Compelling but Unsatisfying

I saw the movie at the Melwood Screening room in Pittsburgh, PA so indeed the film made it the USA.

The movie held my interest throughout but in the end it was unsatisfying because it continued to create loose ends throughout without ever weaving them back together. You could argue that that was intentional, that the viewer was supposed to draw their own conclusions. But, given that real life so often presents unknowable people and events, a film is an opportunity to see things through. mho.

A few things I wondered about: At the end of the movie, his wife mysteriously appears in his south Asian hotel and acts as if nothing is strange about that. As if they had been there together the while time. They make love and then he wakes. It's not clear if she was still there and he's alone. But, just prior to bed, she had suggested he shave his mustache and he does. And she acknowledges him shaving it. That acknowledgment seemed satisfying to him.

Some people, mostly strangers seemed to recognize from photos that he had had a mustache. But all the closest friends denied him ever having had one. Seems too much to believe that he had had one and so he seems crazy. But, they might be in collusion. The film doesn't providing any motif for that collusion.