Dawn's Shore

Risibly ‘poetic’ romantic tosh, in which young photographer François (Garrel fils) embarks upon a soulful affair with moody, unstable actress Carole (Smet), who married on impulse and half-heartedly another thesp currently trying to gain a foothold in Hollywood. When the husband comes home, François checks out and Carole cracks up, with predictably fatalistic results. The film (for which, for once, the phrase ‘Only the French could make this’ is hardly a compliment) is shot by Lubtchansky in luscious black and white, which only accentuates the archaic silliness of the languorous lovers’ posed pouting, while lending the later supernatural scenes of Carole haunting her ex and his latest lover a tonal clumsiness unhappily reminiscent of Ed Wood’s work. All the precious love-letter writing suggests that Garrel père is woefully out of touch with the times.