L’homme…. La mer… Le difference.. grave et triste (man; the sea; the difference between sad and serious)… these are a few of the musings, arguments and love talk uttered by the two couples in French auteur Philippe Garrel’s film take on life and love.

His film begins with an Italian beach house setting.  Present are two couples.  One couple’s story is autobiographical.  Gerard (Benoit Regent) stands in for Garrel in his relationship in real life with Nico, aka Christa Paffgen depicted as Marianne (Johanna ter Steege) in the story.  The film traces the breakdown of their relationship spurred by the use of heroin as other issues like time, memory and regret are touched upon.

One problem of Garrel’s film is the language.  Unless one has more than a working knowledge of French and other European languages (German and Italian poetry is recited in the film), a lot of dialogue will not have much meaning.  Even it the words are completely comprehensive, it takes quite a bit of concentration and work to get into the skin of Garrel to appreciate his effort.  A lot is lost in subtitle translation.  Still, as a film, I NO LONGER HEAR THE GUITAR (the English title) is no technical masterpiece though it did win the Venice Film Festival Silver Lion award.  As such, Garrel’s arguably worthy work may fall on many deaf ears.  This is a film pas tres interesant pour tout.