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55 out of 65 people found the following review useful:
Ingeniously structured and passionately filmed..., 19 July 2005
8/10
Author: Franck Tabouring (franckster@gmx.net) from Luxembourg

Darkness prevails already at the very beginning of 'La Moustache', Emmanuel Carrère's proper adaptation of his novel of the same title, which he published back in the 1980's. Accompanying the opening credits is Philip Glass' perfectly composed and utterly gloomy Violin Concerto, which re-emerges throughout the movie and constantly supplies the global atmosphere of the film with an ominous and bewildering touch.

Welcome to this year's most abstruse film, and eventually the most challenging psychological experiment since 'The Machinist'. Presented at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival in the 'Quinzaine des Réalisateurs' category - a category promoting abstract and rather unusual movies - 'La Moustache' follows the intricate story of Marc Thiriez (Vincent Lindon), an ordinary Parisian architect who slips into a vicious identity crisis after he spontaneously shaves off his moustache.

"How would you react if I shaved off my moustache?" Marc asks his girlfriend Agnès (Emmanuelle Devos) before they visit some friends for dinner. Her reaction is not immediate, and she simply replies "I don't know; I love you with it but I've never known you without it." So while Agnès leaves the apartment for a short time to do some shopping, Marc takes the risk and cuts off his beloved moustache, just like that, in order to see his lover's face and analyze her reaction when she returns home.

However, Marc will be severely disappointed: upon Agnès' arrival, she does not utter one single word. She seems not to notice the major physical change in Marc's face. Nor do their friends. Even Marc's colleagues at the office fail to perceive the absence of his moustache. Is he on the verge of madness? Or has he become the target of a massive conspiracy triggered by his own girlfriend? More weirdly, did he even ever have a moustache? Or was it part of some unexplainable imagination? Marc has no clue at all how to react to his baffling new situation…

When you enter the official movie website, a big question mark appears at the end of the flash intro. This question mark is totally appropriate, since it clearly illustrates what kind of movie 'La Moustache' really is: namely a confusing, puzzling drama with an open ending and a number of unexplainable twists, flashbacks and mysterious appearances by characters when you least expect it. "What is 'La Moustache' about?" is the first question of a recent online interview conducted with Emmanuel Carrère. The director himself has no answer to that crucial question.

Indeed, 'La Moustache' is one of these attention-grabbing cinematic mysteries that first baffle the spectators, and then leave them behind with a bunch of questions unanswered. There are though, in this ingeniously structured and passionately filmed movie, some easily detectable themes. For once, 'La Moustache' is an analysis of a dysfunctional couple tumbling into a conflict driven by mistrust. Marc soon accuses Agnès of plotting against him, but Agnès is deeply persuaded that Marc has in fact never had a moustache. This marks the beginning of a series of violent arguments and disputes.

Moreover, Carrère's film closely focuses on a man struggling with the inevitable loss of his personal identity. Marc is unable to distinguish between reality and imagination, and so he struggles hard to uncover the origins of the problem. He is a man all on his own against the rest of the world. In his apartment, he finds some old pictures from a vacation in Bali, all of them showing him with a moustache. But is he really the only one to see it? Is the moustache on this photo real or not? He does not know, and we do not either.

Especially the first part of 'La Moustache' is intensely compelling and dark, examining the relationship between Marc and Agnès, and closely focusing on Marc's progressive battle to keep his emotional and moral nature under control. When his consciousness slowly begins to shut down, the tension mounts as the suspense grows and the atmosphere becomes more and more threatening. Carrère has a brilliant vision, and he captures Marc's way into madness in a diverse and appealing way.

Marc is the perfect role for Vincent Lindon, whose look is continually as puzzling as the story itself. He masters his role with ideal perfection, always acting authentically. The same can be said about the brilliant Emmanuelle Devos ('La Femme de Gilles'), who delivers an enigmatic performance as Agnès. Her complex character is a true object of curiosity, and no one can trust her. Is she the evil woman ruining the mind of her partner? Or is she the reasonable person? Question marks à gogo.

The last twenty minutes of 'La Moustache', which follow Marc to Bangkok, where he repetitively embarks and disembarks ferries all day long, are quite debatable, yet very challenging. The film reaches yet another climax, takes another abrupt twist, and once again challenges us spectators by sparking our curiosity. Please do not expect a satisfying explanation towards the very ending, because 'La Moustache' ain't going to give you one. Many pieces of the puzzle remain untraceable; but that's exactly what makes this masterpiece so intriguing and unique. (Grade: B+)

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26 out of 33 people found the following review useful:
Pleasant surprise, 3 September 2005
8/10
Author: Paolo A. Gardinali from United States

"The Moustache" is a comedy that, starting from the most trivial of pretexts, quickly turns into a true Kafkian nightmare. A man shaves his mustache. No one seems to notice, and in a surrealistic parody of male mid-life crisis this causes conflict, pain and uncertainty. But more and more threads come undone in the fabric of his reality.

Excellent self-adaptation of a short novel by Emmanuel Carrère, La Moustache delivers the spectator with much more than it promises, in these days a rare occurrence indeed. Vincent Lindon as the troubled protagonist is good and measured, and the movie has an excellent pace and nothing is overdone. Even the theme, a Philip Glass "Concerto pour violon et orchestre" could not be more effective. Will we ever see this movie in the USA? Maybe in a parallel reality.

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13 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Good enough to almost make me..., 19 October 2006
7/10
Author: ftmetler from Canada

Read the book some time ago and after watching the movie felt much the same sort of existential exhilaration - if there is such a thing. Maybe it was just the cold that I have, though. A little overacted at times, but otherwise like an exotic episode of the Twilight Zone, shot in glorious colour. The film reminded me another French film I saw in the theatre recently by the name of Cache, which I enjoyed very much. As for it's American counterpart, I suppose that you'd be looking at something like Lost Highway, David Lynch's bizarre account of a modern, urban couple trying to grapple with the unknown. This seems to be something of a genre for the French and they are quite good at pulling it off - as is evidenced with this film - with considerable style and enough depth of plot and character to leave you considering and reconsidering the film for far more than the sadly customary 10 minutes.

I almost shaved my beard off after watching it just to see what would happen. But I haven't yet. Or have I?

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18 out of 25 people found the following review useful:
Bad Hair Day, 1 September 2005
7/10
Author: writers_reign

This movie is a prime example of how the simplest things can mushroom out of control. Architect Marc (Vincent Lindon) has had a moustache since he was knee high to a blueprint and it is, he feels, part of him, then he takes it into his head to speculate on just how much he is identified via the moustache. He starts by asking his live-in lover Agnes (Manu Devos) whether she would still fancy him sans moustache; since she's only known him with it she can't answer. So, out comes the razor and THEN comes the uneasiness that segues into genuine fright. Not only does Devos not notice the difference but neither do their friends and his colleagues at work. We are now on the fringes of a Kafkaesque scenario which isn't really resolved satisfactorily. For reasons that eluded me Marc, by now convinced that Devos has some hidden agenda he can't fathom, lights out for Hong Kong literally in just the clothes he stands up in and spends a few days - weeks, months? - riding the ferry before Devos shows up, or does she? For one thing how did she know where he was and/or track him down to the fleabag where's he's taken a room. Lots of food for thought here and the acting is out of the right bottle if anybody asks you.

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9 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
beautiful !, 20 May 2006
9/10
Author: desilets_ from Canada, Montreal

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

wow ! this movie is great ! If what you want is to be an active spectator and interactive with the movie, you'll not be disappointed. You'll try to think about what you see and try to solve this whole strange piece of art.

Its about the choices that we make (small choices as to deceide yes or no to cut the moustache) and what are the consequences on our life and the impact toward us by the people we know. Am I important to their eyes even if they are called friends, will they notify any difference on our life. It's also about the search of our identity, and how our identity becomes the one of the other in a relashionship with a lover.

You choose what ever is the meaning of this movie but I believe the director has it's own precise explanation about every detail. I have my own, I think most of the movie is imagination of the character, and the only reality scenes are the ones where he walks everyday in the metro of Hong-Kong, depressed after his wife would have left him during the vacations in Hong-Kong, where he shave his moustache. Even those vacations are a little bit transformed mentally by the reconstitution, it's a flash-back, and all the scenes in Paris are imagination of a life he would have had with his wife if they would have stayed together, with constantly rethinking of his choice of shaving the moustache. It's like Hanneke's "Caché" or more like Lynch's "Mulholland Drive". We travel into the infinite spiral of the human spirit, everything is interior and subjective. The music of Philip Glass is sublime and will obsess you.

You won't forget this movie, even if you don't like it.

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5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
absolutely perplexing, 18 February 2007
7/10
Author: postmanwhoalwaysringstwice from usa

The premise for "La Moustache" should be enough to grab the attention of any film fanatic, especially one who gets thrills from the psychological twists perpetrated upon an audience by the likes of Hitchcock and those he inspired. The film begins simply enough with a man in the bath, inquiring of his wife whether or not he should shave off his mustache. Soon enough he's rid himself of that same lip hair, and no one seems to notice. In fact, maybe he never even had the thing in the first place. How genius a premise, right? The minutiae of daily life are oft overlooked subject matter, so it's refreshing to see something so basic given major importance. Things go along smoothly enough as the man starts to come unwound due to this, but then what? By the time the end credits roll, certain thoughts are running wildly through the mind of the audience. It goes back to wondering just how much can be perpetrated upon an audience before they are either too stumped to get it, or too mentally manipulated to care. This is an interesting film worth a peek, and possibly a discussion about its genius or likewise about where it goes sadly astray.

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5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
A Wonderfully Mysterious Film, 12 June 2006
5/10
Author: Tony Hooper from Australia

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

When I was reading the description of this movie for the Sydney Film Festival I was instantly intrigued, and I certainly was not let down, as it lived both up to this description and my expectation of it.

The premise is delightfully simple: a man trims off his moustache after discussing the possibility with his partner, and after he does so she seems adamant that she never had one in the first place. The entire first half of the film is centred around the conflict that follows, and because of its simplicity I think it is the strongest part of the film. At first it is utterly engaging because of the way Marc responds to everyone's apprent disinterest in his new appearance. He is genuinely upset when his friends, and particularly his wife, do not respond to the change. I thought that it was an effective insight into relationships on the part of Carrere, showing how such a small thing can become such a big issue for a couple. The other feature of the first part of the film was the story regarding the radiator, which sets up the possibility that this could be an elaborate hoax. Though, from the naturalistic perspective the movie takes, it is absurd to think that his wife and friends could have orchestrated the entire affair, it is to Carrere's credit that the possibility is always niggling at the audience.

The progression to the second half of the movie, set in Hong Kong, was somewhat jarring. The trips on the boat, though furthering nicely the interesting water motif that permeated the film, got slightly repetitive before the final twist at the end. However, the appearance of his wife in his hotel room quickly makes one forget this, and really allows the audience to form their own opinion on the matter; is this the dillusion of a troubled man, or the sick game of a strange wife.

The film was excellently written and directed, and the music was inoffensive but effective. My only quibble was the quality of some parts of the movie, but I think this may have been a problem with the reel that was used. All in all it was a highly enjoyable movie for those who don't like to always know what's going on, but most enjoyment can be yielded from it if one appreciates the insights into relationships shown here, and not just into continuity of appearance.

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7 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Vincent Lindon's performance alone will make this soapy tale rinse down smoother, 13 January 2007
6/10
Author: D A from SoFla, UsA

Borrowing a few techniques from the likes of Lynch or Haneke, La Moustache presents an engaging but intentionally confusing story of one man's facial hair and the strange series of events that are set off once that hairy upper lip was removed. Acting as a catalyst in this bizarrely written mystery, The Moustache really plays better as psychological drama then the semi-ludicrous, detail-specific, identity riddle it's seductive direction and powerful performances wooed us into believing. Guided by typical cornerstones of praised European fare, this film, as stubborn or illogical as it may be, is punctuated by the restrained and observant direction of it's original novelist Emmanuel Carrère, and crowned by the masterfully human performance Vincent Lindon imbues this difficult character. When the final credits have rolled, many will be left scratching their heads, already forming diverging conclusions as to what this movie actually had to say. Though there seemed to be too much left to speculation with too many plot holes to justify everything I saw, this was still a compelling mistake at worst and is still worth taking the shave even if the final result feels more pretentiously derivative then compellingly original.

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3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
is there a link to his father?, 3 September 2007
8/10
Author: sanzo-2 from United States

At first, through the first third of the movie, I was sure that the film was an allegory about the architect's family and friends never actually noticing him (or his moustache). Things got confusing to me when he didn't press his wife about the Bali photographs (which appear to confirm he's NOT crazy), his wife is apparently trying to have him committed and he suddenly escapes to Hong Kong.

Though I did enjoy the film immensely in all its detail, I kept feeling there must have been a link between his moustache (and the identity crisis shaving it off led to) and his father's death. His father's death seemed to have discombobulated him.

Did his own confusion about his moustache symbolize his inability to digest the death of his father? Was he dreaming all of the confusion about his moustache?

In the end, I'm left with questions only. Nonetheless, I did enjoy this film and would like to know what other people think of it and what they make of it.

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Chinese Puzzle, 22 February 2009
8/10
Author: valis1949 from United States

LA MOUSTACHE forces the viewer to grapple with a conundrum; "What is real, and what is not?". Carrere (who wrote the novel and directed the film) is a writer and fan of the late, great science fiction author, Philip K. Dick. In fact, Carrere's, I AM ALIVE AND YOU ARE DEAD:A JOURNEY INTO THE LIFE OF PHILIP K. DICK is an excellent biography of this gifted author. Nearly all of Dick's work concerned the shifting nature of Identity and the ontological basis for Reality. This movie examines the possibility of "Change"-shaving a moustache, and the impact on a life. In a sense, the film is kind of a Black Comedy, in that such a minor adjustment would not seem to lead to such dislocation. But, that is not the case in La Moustache. The movie begs all kinds of bizarre interpretations, so don't expect an easy ride from this French 'Chinese Puzzle' of a film,

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