Stan is a successful script writer running out of steam, struggling to get his new script written. He's a chain-smoking alcoholic who lost his wife in a car crash, and just can't see the joy of life. He lives with his daughter, Charlotte, who blames him for the death of her mother,Though it is apparently all smoke and no fire, it’s hard not to get a bit disturbed by the nature of the father-daughter relationship between Serge and Charlotte Gainsbourg. From the duet Lemon Incest in 1984, with Charlotte reprising the role of her mother Jane Birkin, or in this film, Charlotte For Ever, there’s an uncomfortable closeness or casualness between the two.In this film, Stan (Serge) is a formerly successful screenwriter who has succumbed to alcoholism and depression in the aftermath of a car crash that took his wife’s life. His daughter Charlotte is his only remaining family. There’s something kind of Freudian in the duality of how she blames her father for her mother’s death and how she seems to adore his attention. She even gets a bit snippy at other women who come in and out of Stan’s life. And though Jane Birkin is still alive, I couldn’t help but see this story somewhat symbolic of the split between Gainsbourg and Birkin. And I suppose all of this is interesting to a point.
Maybe it’s an easy criticism to make of a director who is also a noted musician, but this film has a lot of moments that suggest music video more than movie. Broad physical acting and rather abstract montage. Carried on over a full film with fairly uninspiring dialogue and this movie ends up dreadfully dull.
Now, there is one thing I wasn't fond of. The soundtrack. Not that the title track "Charlotte For Ever", sung by the two Gainsbourgs, is a bad song (although it's so disturbingly "sexy" in its tone). It's actually a song that instantly got stuck in my head. But this and one other specific song are so overplayed within the film that the chosen moments lose some of the seriousness that was intended whenever you hear that musky, almost horny voice sing "Chaaaarloootte...!". Even though I have no idea what they sing in it, it creeps me out."Charlotte For Ever" is a show reel of talent from Serge and Charlotte Gainsbourg - father and daughter. The entire film is carried by their acting, their real and their fictive bond, their anxiety. Not a lot happens and I had wished for a different ending, but it's not a movie I could say is bad. The mood is very hard to define as it's never just "sad" or "funny". In that sense it's true to life, yet it never feels like reality. And of course, be warned - you will see more of a young woman than you should!
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