Same Old Song
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Alain Resnais
Jean-paul Roussillon
Jacques Mauclair
Francoise Bertin
Bonnafet Tarbouriech
Nathalie Jeannet
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Six men and women criss-cross in the streets of Paris as they negotiate real estate deals and relationships gone wrong. Finally merging at a housewarming party, the six duplicitous characters are unmasked, exposing the ugly lies that tear lovers apart.
Director
Alain Resnais
Cast
Jean-paul Roussillon
Jacques Mauclair
Francoise Bertin
Bonnafet Tarbouriech
Nathalie Jeannet
Pierre Meyrand
Claire Nadeau
Jean-pierre Darroussin
Frederique Cantrel
Gotz Burger
Jean-pierre Bacri
André Dussollier
Sabine Azema
Jean-chretien Sibertin-blanc
Agnfs Jaoui
Robert Bouvier
Nelly Borgeaud
Jane Birkin
Lambert Wilson
Jerome Chappatte
Geoffroy Thiebaut
Dominique Rozan
Charlotte Kady
Romaine Denando
Pierre Arditi
Crew
Arletty
Paul Armont
Eva Arnaud
Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour
Jean-pierre Bacri
Josephine Baker
Alain Bashung
Alain Bashung
Sylvette Baudrot
Gilbert Becaud
Gilbert Becaud
Wilfred Benaiche
Michel Berger
Boris Bergman
Renato Berta
Jane Birkin
J P Bourtayre
L Bourtayre
J P Boutayre
Jo Boyer
P Bretonniere
Marie-christine Budelberger
Jackie Budin
Frederic Caillierez
Marie-sylvie Caillierez
Denis Carquin
Didier Carrel
Didier Carrel
C Carrere
Helene Chalant
Maurice Chevalier
Leo Chiosso
Catherine Chouridis
Catherine Chouridis
Henri Christine
Dalida
Guido De Angelis
Herve De Luze
Maurizio Deangelis
G Del Re
Pierre Delanoe
Alain Delon
Terry Dempsey
Cesare Denatale
Armando Dona
Anne Dunsford-varenne
Jacques Dutronc
Jacques Dutronc
Bertal Duvernois
Michel Emer
Leo Ferre
Leo Ferre
Gianni Ferrio
Bruno Fontaine
Claude Francois
Serge Gainsbourg
France Gall
Henri Garat
Georges Garvarentz
Marcel Gerbidon
Robert Gilbert
Johnny Hallyday
Werner R. Heymann
Andre Hornez
J Hourdeaux
Michel Imbert
Agnfs Jaoui
Michel Jonasz
Michel Klochendler
George Koger
Christian Lacroix
Aurelia Lafaye
Jean-pierre Laforce
Jean-pierre Laforce
Serge Lama
Serge Lama
Gerard Lamps
Jacques Lanzmann
Marcel Lattes
Pierre Lenoir
Pierre Lenoir
Pierre-yves Lestum
Laurent Levy
Laurent Levy
Camille Lipmann
Didier Lize
Eddy Marnay
B Maubon
Eddy Mitchell
C Moine
Raoul Moretti
Thomas Nellen
Gaston Ouvrard
Gaston Ouvrard
P Papadiamandis
Bruno Pesery
Bruno Pesery
Edith Piaf
Christophe Pinel
Albert Prejean
Delphine Quentin
Gustave Quinson
Jacques Quinternet
Jackie Reynal
Alain Romans
Salabert
A Salvet
Michel Sardou
Michel Sardou
Jacques Saulnier
Esme Sciaroni
Vincent Scotto
Michel Seydoux
Simone Simon
N Skorsky
Alain Souchon
Alain Souchon
Catherine Staub
Gilles Thibault
Jean-paul Toraille
Philippe Turlure
H Varna
Sylvie Vartan
Thierry Verrier
Ruth Waldburger
Albert Willemetz
Film Details
Technical Specs
Articles
Same Old Song - Alain Resnais' SAME OLD SONG - Offbeat 1997 French Musical on DVD
Then again, Dennis Potter completists may also want the DVD edition from New Yorker Video, since the movie is an homage to that remarkable screenwriter. And this is where the aforementioned gimmick comes in. In some of Potter's most celebrated TV miniseries, including Pennies from Heaven (1978) and The Singing Detective (1986), characters abruptly burst into song not singing with their own voices, but lip-syncing popular numbers that reflect their thoughts and feelings at the moment, as if life itself were a karaoke session on a cosmic scale. A miniseries he finished just before his death in 1994 is actually called Karaoke, referring to a screenplay that's been written by a character who's dying of cancer, exactly as Potter was doing in real life. The big difference between Potter's greatest works and Resnais's tribute is the intense philosophical seriousness that surges beneath the multileveled plots and grimly absurd moods that are among Potter's trademarks. Resnais is a hugely intelligent filmmaker, and his most legendary masterpieces from Night and Fog and Hiroshima mon amour in the 1950s to Love Unto Death and Mélo in the 1980s have as much philosophical depth as any European movies of the last sixty years. By either accident or design, though, his accolade to Potter is never more than skin deep.
Like many of Resnais's more recent films, Same Old Song has a sizable cast of interacting characters. Camille, a graduate student who's terminally bored by her own thesis, gets infatuated with Marc, a real-estate agent you'd never buy a used car from, and ignores Simon, who's obviously a perfect match for her. Odile, her chronically keyed-up sister, is so tired of her husband, Claude, that she takes more than a casual interest when an old boyfriend, Nicolas, pops back into her life. The movie deals mainly with the romantic complications in these relationships, culminating in a large party where all the figures have to confront truths and falsehoods they've been doing their best to evade throughout the story.
Resnais's most memorable films generally fall into two camps: transfixing excursions into crystal-pure cinema, such as Last Year at Marienbad and Muriel ou Le temps d'un retour, and imaginative essays in richly theatrical film, such as Not on the Lips and Private Fears in Public Places, another movie with a real-estate theme. Same Old Song falls between these categories, lacking the visual ingenuity of the first and the emotional concentration of the second. Most of the limited pizzazz it does manage to display comes from the stock company of engaging actors that Resnais has cultivated for the past 25 years or so, and the picture's César wins reflect this. Best actor went to André Dussollier as Simon and the supporting-actor prizes went to Jean-Pierre Bacri as Nicolas and Agnès Jaoui as Camille; this left Sabine Azéma and Lambert Wilson, who play Odile and Marc, as the only performers to get nominations only. Bacri and Jaoui, who has herself become a filmmaker of note in recent years, wrote the César-winning screenplay, and the editing honors went to Hervé de Luze, who does his best to keep things hopping along.
The best assets of Same Old Song are the old songs that pepper the soundtrack from start to finish. Among the selections are "J'm'en fous pas mal" from Edith Piaf; "J'ai deux amours" from Josephine Baker; "Et moi dans mon coin" from Charles Aznavour; "Afin de plaire à son papa" from Simone Simon; "Mon homme" from Arletty; "Ma Gueule" from Johnny Hallyday; "Avec le temps" from Léo Ferré; "J'aime les filles" from Jacques Dutronc; and "Quoi" from Jane Birkin, who's also in the on-screen cast. If you're a fan of French pop music, this is definitely the movie for you, as long as you don't mind hearing just a handful of lines before the character drops back to plain old talking.
The late Pauline Kael, who was overloaded with strong opinions even by movie-critic standards, once said Resnais was "an innovator who hasn't got a use for his innovations." Applied to much of Resnais's career, that's a nonsensical verdict. But when I'm faced with a second-tier achievement like Same Old Song or with a flat-out disaster like I Want to Go Home, an alleged comedy made several years earlier I can almost see what Kael meant. Same Old Song is too inventive, or rather too tricky, for its own good; and the primary trick isn't even Resnais's own, it's potted Potter, lacking the originality and bite it had when it was new. The movie's high-spirited atmosphere makes it hard to dislike. Unfortunately, its uninspired contrivances make it just as hard to like.
For more information about Same Old Song, visit New Yorker Films.To order The Watcher in the Attic, go to TCM Shopping.
by David Sterritt
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Same Old Song - Alain Resnais' SAME OLD SONG - Offbeat 1997 French Musical on DVD
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Winner of the 1998 Prix Melies from the French Critics Association.
Winner of seven 1997 Cesar Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Andre Dussollier), Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Jean-Pierre Bacri), Best Supporting Actress (Agnes Jaoui), Best Editing, and Best Sound. Also nominated for five awards, including Best Director, Best Actress (Sabine Azema), and Best Supporting Actor (Lambert Wilson).
Released in United States Fall October 15, 1999
Released in United States on Video October 16, 2001
Released in United States 1998
Released in United States February 1998
Released in United States February 2001
Shown at New York Film Festival September 25 - October 11, 1998.
Shown at Berlin International Film Festival (in competition) February 11-22, 1998.
Shown at Berlin International Film Festival February 7-18, 2001.
Began shooting January 6, 1997.
Completed shooting early April 1997.
Released in United States Fall October 15, 1999 (NY)
Released in United States on Video October 16, 2001
Released in United States 1998 (Shown at New York Film Festival September 25 - October 11, 1998.)
Released in United States February 1998 (Shown at Berlin International Film Festival (in competition) February 11-22, 1998.)
Released in United States February 2001 (Shown at Berlin International Film Festival February 7-18, 2001.)