Charlotte for Ever

Both Charlotte and Serge Gainsbourg give fantastic and touching performances in this near true to life story. Directed by Serge it is a true masterful work that is really not known... beautiful and thoughtful. Charlotte Gainsbourg is very young, I think she is 15 years of age but shows the depth and star power that is to come. It is not for the faint of heart because this film is heartbreaking.

"Charlotte For Ever" is a great example of the way the French like to fetishize suffering. It's a movie about a mopey alcoholic recovering from the accidental death of his wife who seems to be having a great time. He just slouches around his apartment, muttering meaningless pseudo-philosophical dialogue, while apparently seducing teenage girls, including his own daughter.

Or does he? There's no sex in the movie, but it keeps suggesting as much. For example, during a mundane conversation with her old man, young Charlotte takes off her top, unexpectedly, and turns to approach him. End scene.

What happened after the scene ended? Other times we see the old man and Charlotte in bed together, implying sex has either happened or is about to happen, but we never see it.

And what to make of the scene where Gainsbourg's Stan strips his daughter's school-friend and she stands there like a mannequin while he fondles her breast?

I think that Gainsbourg knew the controversial premise would be enough to sell tickets. Incest and paedophilia would be bad enough, but when the father and daughter are related in real life? It worked for the song/music video "Lemon Incest", and here, Gainsbourg repeated the trick.

I just wish he had bothered to make an actual movie with a story, characters, or some kind of point. What we have is just a tedious slog, with a pointlessness that is almost laughable.

Oh, and for the raincoat brigade? There's not really enough nudity here to justify your attention, I don't think. And there's certainly no eroticism.

Maybe I've missed the point or perhaps you have to be some kind of pretentious art house aficionado to understand the point of this movie. Let's see some guy washed up in his career has reached a mid life crisis and has hit the bottle hard (are you following me so far?), his raison d'être appears to be his daughter Charlotte (Charlotte Gainsbourg)who doesn't seem that balanced herself. Rather like walking through mud in the middle of a storm, you're treated to his angst and insecurity and her angst and insecurity throw in some nudity as well (this is a French film after all) and some miscellaneous characters and that's your plot. The acting is fine, this film is disturbing and deeply depressing and is best avoided unless you really want to be entertained this way

A writer played by Serge Gainsbourg, is asking his agent for money which he needs because he is broke. His agent argues with him, and asks for the script he is supposed to be working on. After some prolonged begging, he finally gets the cash after promising to finish the script.

His daughter Charlotte is used as his on screen offspring here for a sense of reality. They argue constantly about her mother's death in a car accident in which she blames her father for causing. We get repeated flashbacks of a Porsche crashing into a fuel tanker and a fiery explosion. In between, old Serge drinks, has sex with various prostitutes, and reads from classic literature, including Lolita, to his fifteen year old daughter. He has inappropriate behavior with her, including some brief nudity of young Charlotte. The film goes nowhere, it just drifts from scene to scene with no direction. Why Mr. Gainsbourg would subject his young daughter to this subject matter at fifteen is beyond me. I was bored by Charlotte Forever.

I would only recommend this movie for fans of Serge and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Most of the movie takes place in a really dark apartment where we are witnesses to long tedious conversations between the main actors, discussing a lot of nonsense. Pretty much all conversation is delivered unconvincingly and if it weren't for the big name that Serge Gainsbourg is, then this movie is just too boring to be a work of well-made art. It really wants to be a cool and dark art house movie, but succeeds only in putting you to sleep unless you buy the whole idea of the screenplay.

The music is quite nice, but is just repeated constantly with the same numbers played in between scenes that really doesn't do anything for the story. The music is just a relief when we see everybody's sad faces and Charlotte Gainsbourgs ass and naked body. Sadly the best scenes of the movie is two scenes with girls wiggling their sexy behinds, and some cool shots of a car exploding.

The camera-work is fine as well, but there is not much interesting material to work with here.