La Moustache

Name: La Moustache
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Released: May 24, 2006
Duration: 87 min
Rating: 71

2006

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 14 Ratings

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6.6

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6.6	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 14 Ratings

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La Moustache

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Movie Details & Credits

Cinema Guild | Release Date: May 24, 2006 | Not Rated

Summary: Adapted from his own novel, Emmanuel Carrere directs an engrossing existential thriller, a story about a man who inadvertently loses himself. [Cinema Guild]

Director: Emmanuel Carrère

Genre(s): Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 87 min

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Critic Reviews

Kevin Thomas

Emmanuel Carrère's witty, elegant La Moustache is a deliciously unsettling, beautifully sustained enigma, a film of much beauty and flawless performances, especially from Vincent Lindon in one of his most demanding roles. Read full review

Steven Rea

An intriguing study of identity, marriage and, perhaps, madness. Read full review

Michael Atkinson

A successful novelist and restrained actor's director, Carrére makes the transformation of a silly marital argument into a cosmic upheaval look easy, and profound as well. Read full review

Michael Phillips

With his thin-lipped grimace and big, soulful eyes, Lindon's an ideal actor for this sort of puzzle. Read full review

Noel Murray

La Moustache recalls the "everyday suspense" films of Roman Polanski and the existential woe of Michelangelo Antonioni, but it isn't as strange or penetrating as the former, or as artfully shot as the latter. Read full review

Lisa Nesselson

Viewers who like their conclusions tidy may rebel, but those who relish outstanding performances in the service of an intriguing idea will be entertained. Read full review

Jack Mathews

Have Marc's friends tricked him with a conspiracy of silence, or was that mustache a growth only in his mind? The filmmaker has said there is no intended meaning to any of this, so search for it for your own amusement. Read full review

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User Reviews

RonC.

Sep 1, 2007

Excelent movie that questions reality and relationships. Do not look for the "meaning" of the mustache, just enjoy the mystery.

0 of 0 users found this helpful

JodieJ.

Aug 26, 2006

This film was haunting and memorable. I can't wait to see it again.

0 of 0 users found this helpful

LloydM.

Jan 19, 2007

Arresting and resonant; although I disagree with Stuart W., I loved his simile.

0 of 0 users found this helpful

Broyax

Aug 8, 2021

Emmanuel Carrère n’a jamais caché son admiration pour Philip K. Dick, il a en effet écrit une sympathique et dévouée biographie de l’auteur américain renommé pour ses mondes parallèles et/ou très déformants…

Voici donc un film qui exploite les thèmes sur la perte de l’identité, la paranoïa,Emmanuel Carrère n’a jamais caché son admiration pour Philip K. Dick, il a en effet écrit une sympathique et dévouée biographie de l’auteur américain renommé pour ses mondes parallèles et/ou très déformants…

Voici donc un film qui exploite les thèmes sur la perte de l’identité, la paranoïa, sur un monde qui devient tout-à-coup étriqué et truqué… à moins que ce ne soit un début de folie pure plus ou moins passagère ! et comme dans un livre de Dick, tout part d’un détail, si anodin qu’il en est trivial et pourtant fondamental : la moustache !

Le film sait se montrer inquiétant, intrigant et plutôt bizarre ; il s’avère très drôle par moments lorsque le discernement et la mémoire de notre ex-moustachu basculent… il peut se reposer sur ses comédiens très convaincants (Lindon et Devos) et sur des extraits de la musique de Philip Glass, un brin obsédante d’ailleurs.

Le film progresse néanmoins trop lentement, presque trop timidement ; il se traîne en effet… en longueurs, s’éternise sur trop de plans et la dernière partie se révèle absurde (même si la fin elle-même reste sans doute… intéressante). Cela fait assurément un peu trop de « trop » pour remporter vraiment… l’adhésion, hélas.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Renovatia

Oct 12, 2016

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Hello viewer. I watched this movie as it was tagged with "Mystery" amongst others. I like mystery, and don't mind additional tags such as "drama" at all. I regret watching it - wasting time. I'll explain in a moment.

First the facts. The movie is about a man in his mid-life years who shaves off his mustache, yet nobody notices the difference. In fact, everybody claims he didn't have a mustache for the past 15 years. Even though we see physical evidence such as recent pictures. We even see him shaving off his mustache. From here on our star sinks into a life of confusion and mental agony.

I can't help revealing the end to outline the criticism I have. The end basically leaves us in an ambiguous state. Was it all real? Is he going crazy, first signs of Alzheimer, mid-life crisis? We do not receive any answers and that is absolutely unforgivable. Because a potential "big reveal" is all the movie had going for.

The pace is slow - to end up with nothing. With that I mean that much of the time spent is for our star to ask around if they notice any difference. We got the message after twenty minutes, but it kept dragging on. This movie could have been easily shortened by fifty percent, and it still would have retained its main narrative of ambiguity.

So there it is, one sits through this slow movie only to be left with zero answers. The plot is that you have to make up your own reasons. I'm sorry but that will simply not do.

I have two good things to say about the movie. First being the music. Philip Morris Glas' nihilistic classic music is really nice if you like classic music. For this movie it reminded me a bit of Vivaldi's "Spring". Whilst liking this, one may complain that it's too heavy, and the complaint might be justified indeed. The second thing I appreciate is the decent camera-job. The budget was "only" about five million Euros, yet we were not treated with shaky handycam like so many low-ish budget films do. Lighting, angles, lenses, it all was more or less OK. Meaning, watching the movie was mostly easy on the eye.

For the good things, I rated the movie three stars. The lack of context and answers truly infuriated me. It's not that I desperately need answers, but I have been given absolutely nothing. For example John Carpenters' "The Thing" leaves us in an ambiguous state of the fate of the two survivors. But the ending is satisfying nevertheless because no matter what, those two are in deep trouble. Also, what happened wasn't their imagination, it all was real. So no mystery there. Such context was not the case with "La Moustache".

Sorry to be this negative, but the truth is, I think, that this movie was a standard project to bait the kind of critics who love "deep" movies. And it worked; for example it won the Directors' Fortnight Award. It's not much, but that's how the game works.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

StuartW.

Jul 15, 2006

This film appeals to the artsy-fartsy set still believing French Films are de rigour. La Moustache a failed souffle; and as exasperating as finding a hair in your soup.

0 of 0 users found this helpful

StephenC.

Jul 17, 2006

Pretentious storytelling with no story to tell, on the premise that muddling a nonentity makes it profound. Possibly the most boring movie I have ever watched.

0 of 0 users found this helpful

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