La moustache
2005 Directed by Emmanuel Carrère
Synopsis
One day, on a whim, Marc decides to shave off the mustache he's worn all of his adult life. He waits patiently for his wife's reaction, but neither she nor his friends seem to notice. Stranger still, when he finally tells them, they all insist he never had a mustache. Is Marc going mad? Is he the victim of some elaborate conspiracy? Or has something in the world's order gone terribly awry?
Cast
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It's so French! (Spoken with French accent) I have no idea what's going on and I like it! The guy has a mustache and then he shaves it off and people don't remember him ever having a mustache... How is this not the best plot ever? I walked out of the cinema wishing I could grow a mustache, and be French
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A mind-blowingly good existential mystery about a man and his mustache. It starts off simple enough -- we see Marc asking his wife, Agnes, if he should shave off his mustache. Agnes responds that she's never known him without the mustache. Marc decides to shave it off anyway and this is where things get dark and existential. Suddenly no one, including his wife, seems to remember him with a mustache and Marc begins to question his own sanity. Loved everything about it.
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Recommended by Aaron. A good film, but a strange one too. Have read reviews calling it Kafkaesque and likening it to Mulholland Drive, which I think is close to giving any kind of idea of what kind of film it is. It is also a quite interesting character study.
Very much recommended, just know you will be scratching your head afterwards.
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La moustache starts with an interesting premise: what if a man shaves off his moustache on a whim and discovers not only that no one who knows him notices, but they all insist he’s never had a moustache in the first place? At first Marc Thiriez thinks his wife Agnès, their friends, and his co-workers are playing a practical joke on him, but his mild irritation quickly gives rise to an existential crisis. Emmanuel Carrère deftly handles the unsettling first hour and we’re never quite sure whether Marc is going insane, the victim of a noirish plot hatched by Agnès with the help of others, or perhaps we’re dealing with an unreliable (implied) narrator. But the wheels come off the…
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I didn't finish this, it's true, or even get past 20 minutes, but the magic premise of the moustache no one missed is so plodding...three scenes (at least) to tell us that no one remembers the guy's moustache? Forget it.
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Regarding the importance of facial hair in france (also possibly about something very different)
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La moustache starts with an interesting premise: what if a man shaves off his moustache on a whim and discovers not only that no one who knows him notices, but they all insist he’s never had a moustache in the first place? At first Marc Thiriez thinks his wife Agnès, their friends, and his co-workers are playing a practical joke on him, but his mild irritation quickly gives rise to an existential crisis. Emmanuel Carrère deftly handles the unsettling first hour and we’re never quite sure whether Marc is going insane, the victim of a noirish plot hatched by Agnès with the help of others, or perhaps we’re dealing with an unreliable (implied) narrator. But the wheels come off the…
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I didn't finish this, it's true, or even get past 20 minutes, but the magic premise of the moustache no one missed is so plodding...three scenes (at least) to tell us that no one remembers the guy's moustache? Forget it.
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Intriguing concept but creates more questions than it answers. Could have been better with a different script.
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I read the letterboxd description of this French one and was really curious to see it! after about one and a half hours later I was a little bit bored. A man (or a woman) in a midlife crisis, a little boating experience in the bay of Hong Kong... as a viewer we got a lot of time to think about this man and his personality.
I felt a bit depressed, for the man AND for the potential of this film with a grandiose storyline! -
I have had a moustache for the last four years. Around three years ago, I made the fatal error of shaving off the lip warmer for my sister’s wedding. Aside from making me look about five years younger, I was a different person altogether, and found it difficult to identify with the fresh-faced man in the mirror.
Such an existential crisis is the stimulus behind Emmanuel Carrère enjoyably disorientating suspense thriller. Vincent Lindon stars as Marc, a handsome, successful Parisian whose life begins to unravel after he whimsically decides to shave off the moustache that has hung onto his face for several years. Happy with the transformation, his girlfriend Agnes (Emmanuelle Devos) fails to notice the change. Increasingly frustrated with…
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Regarding the importance of facial hair in france (also possibly about something very different)
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Maaaan this is impossible to review! But wauw! Loving it.
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Recommended by Aaron. A good film, but a strange one too. Have read reviews calling it Kafkaesque and likening it to Mulholland Drive, which I think is close to giving any kind of idea of what kind of film it is. It is also a quite interesting character study.
Very much recommended, just know you will be scratching your head afterwards.
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It's so French! (Spoken with French accent) I have no idea what's going on and I like it! The guy has a mustache and then he shaves it off and people don't remember him ever having a mustache... How is this not the best plot ever? I walked out of the cinema wishing I could grow a mustache, and be French