Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Mar 29th at 7:30pm for Just Another Love Story at the Brattle Theatre . Look for Audra wearing a “Who’s Your Spydaddy” shirt in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.
” If the first order of business for any self-respecting film noir is a dead body with a story to tell, Ole Bornedal is quick to oblige. But rest assured that this twisted, visually energized genre… If the first order of business for any self-respecting film noir is a dead body with a story to tell, Ole Bornedal is quick to oblige. But rest assured that this twisted, visually energized genre bender has no further use for “custom,” and Just Another Love Story is anything but.
Jonas is a crime photographer, a family man, and a generally beleaguered resident of suburban malaise until heÂ’s involved in a car accident that leaves a stranger, Julia, unconscious in the hospital. Curiosity compels Jonas to visit her, but when JuliaÂ’s family mistakes him for her boyfriend, Sebastian (whom theyÂ’ve never met), Jonas readily steps into the role. His pretense would be short lived, but Julia awakens with amnesia and, enlivened by the new identity heÂ’s inherited, Jonas maintains the deception. Of course, memories return. And so do boyfriends.
Playing with flashbacks, employing a linearly fractured narrative, and freely manipulating noirÂ’s standard devices and archetypes, BornedalÂ’s dexterity with genre conventions is on full display here. Constantly aware of whatÂ’s predictable, he heads in the opposite direction. Moreover, he latches onto a completely universal impulse–the desire to reinvent ourselves. But fatalism rules in noir, and the cruel irony–tailor made for that dead body–is that living a life that isnÂ’t yours is a dangerous game, an illusory freedom. The truth always comes knocking at your door.”