User Reviews

You've got to hand it to Leconte; he sure knows how to provoke discussion. I haven't read all the previous comments but enough to be aware of the spectrum they cover and that the majority are highly favorable. So far I've yet to encounter a Religious reading though this is at one level fairly obvious: Our protagonist, Antoine, is seen first as a twelve year old, he emerges again as a mature man (not, perhaps, the 30 that Christ was when we next meet him in the bible, Jean Rochefort was in fact 60 at the time) with no visible means of support yet reasonably well-dressed and well nourished. We have no idea and nor are we ever told whether he got his bac, went to university (or even gaol), became a doctor, lawyer or Indian chief. Nothing. But he does, arguably, perform a miracle by bringing true love into the life of another. I'm also slightly surprised that the feminists haven't jumped on this bandwagon and seen valuable ammunition in this story of a man who defines himself only in relation to a woman. In both French (Le mari de la coiffeuse, literally the husband of the hairdresser) and English (The Hairdresser's Husband) Antoine exists only as an appendage to a member of the opposite sex in much the same way as for years women were defined only by THEIR husbands, the doctor's wife, the bus driver's wife, or even just Eric's wife. Antoine makes the choice to define himself in relation to a woman - at that stage unspecified as an individual - when, at the age of 12 he states unequivocally his desire to become not a train driver or a biologist but a hairdresser's husband; a singular ambition whichever way you look at it. And so it comes to pass; one day, years later, he walks into a hairdressing salon owned and run by a very attractive young woman (Anna Galiena was 36 at the time, 24 years Rochefort's junior)and proposes marriage within minutes. Now this is where, in the cold light of day we stop and ask some very pertinent questions. I've already dealt with half of them - where has Rochefort been since he was 12 - but now we must consider why an attractive and sensual young woman who, as an extra incentive, owns her own business, has no man in her life, none on the horizon and, seemingly, none in her past - though later she does tell Rochefort that she has known other men but none like him. In the interests of sustaining the fantasy on which this movie is predicated the young, attractive business woman, having initially ignored the proposal, accepts, in a cold, matter-of-fact manner, on their very next meeting, a couple of weeks later and then, against all the odds, to say nothing of the age difference and Rochefort coming across as eccentric rather than the answer to a maiden's prayer, they fall madly in love and enjoy an idyllic, insular relationship, rarely straying far from the salon and punctuated by Antoine's unique dancing to Arabic music. I've dwelt on what we might term 'realistic' aspects in order to illustrate the kind of obstacle the movie must overcome in realist/cynical viewers before it can begin to exert its peculiar charm and I can only say that it is totally successful because even as these caveats enter your mind they are destroyed effortlessly by the strength and conviction of the two central performances and the strong support - including that of Michelle Laroque who somehow succeeds in suppressing her natural glamor and sensuality in what amounts to a cameo. Nothing can last forever, as Noel Coward said so memorably in one of his minor songs and Mathilde's interest in the gradual ageing of regular customers verges on the obsessive until, in one of the most romantic gestures in the history of film she takes her own life rather than face what she sees as the inevitable decline of passion and romantic love. Leconte shot this movie right after Monsieur Hire and followed it three years later (after some TV work and a short film) with 'Tango' another quirky story in which Rochefort (by then 63) had a small role as a bellboy and I have no hesitation in adding my voice to the 'yeas' and scoring this one 9/10

This is another romantic/drama that only the French seem to know how to make. The key to these films isn't necessarily the story but the casting and its hard not to like a film that has Jean Rochefort. This is a story about a man named Antoine (Rochefort) who has always dreamed of marrying a hairdresser. The film starts with Antoine at the age of 12 and we see him constantly going to get his hair cut by the local hairdresser who is a widow and very bosomy. She dies unexpectedly and Antoine spends the next 40 years searching for another one that he can try and marry. Now he's 52 and he meets Mathilde (Anna Galiena) who is the new owner of a shop and during his first haircut with her he blurts out "Will you marry me"? She ignores him but three weeks later he returns and she says "Yes". They get married and seem perfectly suited to one another. They rarely go out and don't seem to have much contact with the outside world. Mathilde gets depressed by listening to her clients problems and she is under the assumption that one day they're love will end.

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

One day it starts to pour down rain and they make passionate love. Mathilde gets up and says she is going out for yogurt but she never returns. She ends up jumping into the ocean and drowning herself. Later Antoine finds a note that says she didn't want to go through the experience of not being in love anymore.

Some have regarded this as one of Patrice Leconte's finest films but I have to think that "The Man On The Train" is certainly better and a lot more interesting. But this is a romantic fable that for the most part works. The best thing about this film are the two leads of Rochefort and Galiena. Rochefort is perfectly charming as the whimsy Antoine who spent nearly his entire life searching for the perfect hairdresser. And Galiena is of course beautiful and even though the gap in their age is noticeable we can still understand why she would find him enchanting. But this is far from being a classic and the films faults lie in the lack of character development. Who is Antoine and why doesn't he work? And why would a beautiful woman like Mathilde be such a shut-in? She says she has no photo's of herself when she was younger but we never find out why. Leconte is content to just have these two get together and allow the viewer to witness their romantic life. The film ends on a very sad note and it has Antoine telling a customer that the hairdresser will be right back. Antoine has spent his life finding her and he's not about to give her up. Even though the story has many incomplete plotlines the film does work effectively as a romantic fable.

("Le mari de la coiffeuse")

The director (Patrice Leconte) has a gift for helping us see people from other perspectives (e.g., "The Man on the Train"). As in that movie, Jean Rochefort is one of the leading characters.

As there can be no one single meaning to a work of art, so any movie will evoke many. But I strongly disagree with the narrative described in most other reviews of this charming movie, thinking my own makes far more sense.

Antoine, a boy about 12 years old on the cusp of puberty, enjoys the sensuality of physical closeness to the woman barber who cuts his hair, his head often cradled against her ample bosom.

His father has aspirations for his children and, one evening at supper, he asks this son what he wants to be when he grows up. He mistakes Antoine's answer, groping toward his awakening sexuality (and wanting to marry a woman barber), for a lack of ambition. He disapproves of his son's announced goal and over-reacts, chastising him at the supper table, and sending him immediately to his room. (We see a hint that then both he and his wife wonder if he's been overly punishing.)

But instead of being hurt or angry, Antoine takes further solace in his fantasy, very much as Max did (in quite different ways) in the classic book, "Where the Wild Things Are." Whereas Max became king of the Wild Things; the rest of this movie is Antoine's dream of what his future would be if married to a woman barber/hairdresser.

As in a dream--as in a 12 year old boy's simplified view of what it means to be a married adult and what an adult world is like--many parts of reality are missing: e.g., it's as if he needs no job, as if love and marriage happen in almost an instant, as if his wife's life revolves only about him and his about her, as if all their adult life takes place in his wife's barber shop where he's constantly present, and as if his wife would, of course, prefer death to the risk of losing him.

The somewhat bizarre little recurring dance which he does underscores the non-reality, the dream-like quality in this major part of the movie.

This is an utterly charming movie of the world of a boy who is just coming into puberty, trying to make sense of this delightful experience of being close to a woman's body.

That's the meaning to me and this view is so very compelling I cannot believe the director intended any other.

SPOILERS. Patrice Leconte can keep a cool head. After only one year from his last film (the cold and dark "Monsieur Hire"), he made a film that is another type but it's as successful as the previous one. A little boy called Antoine discovers sensuality thanks to his hairdresser, mrs Schaeffer. He decides that when he is a grown-up, he wants to marry a hairdresser. His dream becomes a reality when he's meeting a hairdresser called Mathilde. Then, they are thrilled......

This is this happiness that the movie wants especially to show and its effects on the main characters and the making: the time and the daily life are abolished, the sceneries remain neutral. Concerning the main characters, they love themselves, feel like staying eternally in their "immobile ship" and as Metallica said in one of their songs: "nothing else matters".

Leconte also attaches importance on the hairdresser's customers: they are colourful, a bit odd and due to this they make the hairdressing salon unusual. The end is a little unexpected. You could expect to see Antoine depressed and miserable but not all! Maybe he is lost in his happiness. All in all, a sensitive and delicate film very well performed.

Note: this movie won the Louis Delluc price in 1990 equal with "le petit criminel" by Jacques Doillon.

Since the twelfth year of his life an unusual obsession has taken hold of Antoine: the desire to marry a hairdresser. This idea was produced by a strange interconnection of circumstances: The woollen cloth of the swimming trunks knitted by his mother won't dry and chafes at the genitals; thereby sexual desire is produced which focusses on Madame Sheaffer, a voluptuously built Alsatian hairdresser that attracts him even more when Antoine succeeds in throwing a glance at one of her only meagrely covered breasts, during one of his innumerable haircutting sessions.

But sexual reverie comes to an abrupt end, at least for the time being, when Antoine discovers Mme Sheaffer dead on the floor of her hairdressing salon.

In the long run, the inexplicable suicide can't suppress his most ardent ambition. On the contrary: his visits at the hairdresser's become a passion, and about forty years after the terrible incident Antoine finally encounters the hairdresser of his dreams.

Straight away he asks for Mathilde's hand, without having talked much to her, without having noticed a trace of willingness on her part to see more in him than a mere customer. Therefore she meets his audacity with chilly silence, so that Antoine has to present his apologies and leaves the salon confusedly. Will his life ambition be doomed to failure?

A couple of weeks later Antoine returns though, a little timidly, and it seems unlikely that he might dare to repeat his proposal. But, quite surprisingly, it's Mathilde who refers again to the unusual request and accepts it, as if all she needed was a little bit of time to think about it. An almost silent relationship develops, in which the two partners cling to themselves in an uncompromising manner, offering hardly any space for the outside world. They experience their happiest moments of love when, after the completion of daily work, they lock themselves in the salon and spend their nights in states of euphoria.

Such idyll would be perfect, if there weren't any disturbing shadows falling on the radiant image. At the beginning they are nothing more than some apparently casual remarks made by Mathilde referring to certain customers, for instance when she discovers on their departure that they walk more stoopedly than they used to. It is progressing time that haunts Mathilde, the fear to lose passion all of a sudden. Such an idea seems to be unbearable for her, and finally leads her to a fatal inspiration...

Again Antoine finds himself alone, disheartenedly, like after that first death. He has to admit that, although life ambitions are generally fulfillable, it is impossible to hold on to them. There is nothing else for him to do now but to be the guardian of a deserted hairdresser's salon, in which, although he may be able to wash the hair of the next customer, he then can only tell him to wait: The hairdresser will surely return.