Okay, the whole reason for my watching this was that Audrey Tautou was in it (well, it's a good reason), so I certainly didn't know what I was in for. In writing the entries that make up this blog, I've been pretty bloody-minded about the fact that I'm writing them for myself and not for anyone else, and the contents have reflected this, but here I feel compelled to say to anyone who may read this: spoilers follow, and if you haven't seen this film, you should stop reading this right now.
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The thing is, He Loves Me... depends on its twists and shifts in tone for its effect, and they are many. Not having the faintest idea of what this film was about, I was pulled along by the film's deceptive series of cloaks: the bright, colourful opening, Angelique (sweet Audrey, of course, whose intimations of opacity perfectly fit the role) browsing in the flower shop, suggests a whimsical romantic comedy of some kind, and this is gradually overlaid by a pall which settles over proceedings as things get considerably darker and unsettling-creepy-obsessive, causing the opening scenes to seem rather Blue Velvet-esque - serious cracks appear in the veneer, murder is done, and 'Act 1' culminates, dear reader, with our heroine gassing herself...
And the next move - the rewind - more or less turned my head inside out, not because it's a particularly original device (another Lynch film, Mulholland Drive obviously comes to mind, though that latter is weirder than He Loves Me... by about a factor of ten), but simply because it was so unexpected. Similarly, the way that the retelling from Loic's perspective gradually brings the truth to light, while also enriching and filling the gaps in the first telling, is well-crafted but fundamentally straightforward - but it works despite that straightforwardness.
I think that He Loves Me... has a bit to say about love - not least that it's complex and murky, and can take many forms - and, in the telling, it seems both oddly affirmatory and really rather dark. The last scene in which we see Loic and Rachel suggests that theirs is a true love and will prevail - but it seems to be suggested, too, that Angelique's love is no less real for being erotomanic and self-deceptive, and the grimness of the scenes showing her treatment take on a different significance when watched in light of that idea. Anyway, I'm surprised that I've written so much about this one - but it really is a rather unusual film, even if the story it tells is a familiar one.
