Rebuttal Marathon UpdateDans Paris Christophe Honoré is an extremely idiosyncratic filmmaker - he's in love with film and rhythm. There is dancing and singing and partially dressed attractive young people and a whole lot of effortless cool.
I can agree with what you're saying. There's a fresh attitude at work here and the opening monologue from the French Robert Pattenson (pictured above) set me up for something neat. But the extended flashback, tracking the decline of the brother's relationship frustrated me a lot. I got what Honoré was going for with scenes that would careen wildly between love, hate and indifference, but the emotional transitions were often too abrupt, like I was watching a couple of sadistic nymphomaniacs. Then there were the jump cut edits which further complicated the emotional arcs, sometimes completely obliterating any transition between love and hate. The bitter icing on the cake was how often I despised Paul's behavior. As the main story takes hold, we watch him brood and I can only think back to how poorly he treated Anna. Real hard to feel sorry for him.
I also can't quite say I got Jonathan's story. He's worried that his brother may attempt suicide and makes a game that will force his brooding brother out of the house. Then he's distracted by the joy of casual sex. Multiple times. (How French?) Was this his way of coping? Did he no longer care? He seemed confident that Paul would be fine and just went off having fun.
The best scene by far (and it really came out of nowhere) was the musical duet. It doesn't hold a candle to any of the songs in Once, but for this film it was very nice. Overall, I'd hope for a more honest blend of Scenes From a Marriage and Three Colours: White.
I'll be skipping Honoré's Love Songs.