Loulou
Directed by Maurice Pialat
Written by Arlette Langmann and Maurice Pialat
1980/France
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime Rental (Fandor)
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Some people are born losers; others acquire the knack gradually. – W. C. Fields

I could have lived without seeing this stupid movie.

Loulou (Gérard Depardieu) is a complete slacker.  He is the kind of guy who will spend his entire life spongeing off people, mostly women, between jail sentences for petty crimes. The only place he is any good is the bedroom.  This is more than enough for the educated, cultured Nelly (Isabelle Huppert) to leave her husband André (Guy Marchand).  The movie is a series of sex scenes and bad boy action.

Gerard Depardieu plays one of the most unlikeable protagonists in film history.  He’s  a complete zero, up there with Jean-Paul Belmondo in Breathless, only that is a a much better movie.  I spent the whole film hoping the Huppert character would dump him.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen.  The worst part is that I think we are supposed to root for Loulou by the end.  I cannot imagine why.

**********************************

This finishes up the List films for 1980.  I regret not having a rewatch of The Gods Must Be Crazy but I need to get my DVD player set up still.  I’m going to move on to 1981.   It looks to be another good year for movies.