Regular Lovers (2005)

Many viewers who felt let down by The Dreamers' treatment of the events of '68 may feel vindicated by this work. Cinematographically, Philippe Garrel employs gritty, grainy black-and-white to impart a docudrama quality to the motion picture (and thus, the suggestion of the political protests actually transpiring as the film unspools). Temporally, whereas Bertolucci's events unfold in the days prior to the riots and protests, Garrel goes for the jugular, with a plunge right into the core of the fray. Students of French film might notice similarities between this loquacious, cerebral three-hour work and the films of the late Jean Eustache, particularly his masterful 1973 film La Maman et la Putain (The Mother and the Whore). The parallels are not accidental; Garrel was a protégé of Eustache and planned this work as an homage. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide