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New Century of Cinema
DOWSE Guide to the
Movies
by Tony Lee editor of
Pigasus
Press
The Hairdresser's Husband
Director: Patrice Leconte
79 minutes (15) widescreen 2.35:1 Tartan DVD
review by Donald Morefield
Jean Rochefort stars as introverted Antoine, who finds a soul mate of sorts in
hairdresser Mathilde (Anna Galiena). She washes, cuts and trims men's hair, and he
watches, smilingly, sometimes groping her when the barber's shop customers aren't
looking. She shaves off an unwitting visitor's beard (with a straight razor, of course)
on their wedding day, while still wearing her bridal dress. Rochefort's attempts to
dance to Arabic music are the only time Antione's character honestly comes alive but
the results, unfortunately, are just too ridiculous.
The sensuality of hair, and the accoutrements of the hairdressing
profession, is lingered upon with fetishistic delight. This unlikely couple's nigh
claustrophobic romance denies the existence of an outside world to the point of
hermetically sealed boyhood fantasy. Theirs is a languid passion, evidenced with
glowingly precise photography that nothing is allowed to disturb. Having the only
other domestic relationship in the story break up unsubtly reinforces the unquestioning
validity of Antoine and Mathilde's cherished love. And so, the weirdo hermit's wife
lives forever in suffocating denial of pleasure or life, outside the salon, while the
marriage descends into hedonistic wallow. Obsession and sadness permeate the narrative
in a familiar, and irritatingly Gallic, way some may find inexcusably boring. I won't
give away the spitefully abrupt ending - but suffice to say, that what opens with a
sense of energetic abandon eventually succumbs to a merely companionable silence.
DVD extras: scene selection in a dozen chapters, filmographies of
director and stars, director's notes, picture gallery, and a review (uncredited). The
packaging indicates a 4:3 full-screen presentation but the film is actually in
widescreen, and French language with English subtitles.
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