From such quirky childhood memories as knitted woolen swimming trunks-with dangling pompons, no less-and visits to a lady barber, Patrice Leconte has fashioned a film that is winning worldwide acclaim.
Yet, even while making ”The Hairdresser`s Husband,” the French writer-director thought no one would want to see a movie about a man who fulfills his childhood dream of marrying a hairdresser and living with her in sensuous bliss.
”I thought maybe 20 people would be interested in this movie, counting my family,” Leconte, 44, said during a recent visit. ”But this story of love and sensuality, of ideal love, has been incredibly successful all over the world. I`m happy, of course, but completely mystified.”
”The Hairdresser`s Husband” is Leconte`s follow-up to ”Monsieur Hire,” his lyrical 1991 adaptation of a Georges Simenon mystery focusing on a lonely tailor`s voyeuristic attachment to the comely exhibitionist across the way. Both films deal with obsessive love, but in completely opposite ways, which was precisely Leconte`s intention.
”My first thought was to make a movie that would be different from
`Monsieur Hire,` which was very somber, oppressive and dark. To reassure myself, I wanted to make a light, warm movie.
”I wanted to make a film where everything was simple, where there`s a woman you want to marry, and she agrees. Where you want to live with her for years, just looking at her, and she likes to be looked at. Where you want to caress her and she likes to be caressed.
”That was the starting point. Then, gradually, I remembered these childhood memories about the hairdresser, and I said, there, it`s about a boy who has a dream-to marry a hairdresser. It`s just a little thing.”
”Monsieur Hire” was Leconte`s first film to be picked up for U.S. distribution, but the art-house denizens who received it so warmly might be surprised to learn that it was his ninth film, and that his previous efforts were light, commercially successful comedies-so light and successful that one British writer referred to him as ”the French John Landis.”
While none earned him anything close to the raves accorded ”Monsieur Hire,” Leconte isn`t about to turn his back on such earlier works as 1978`s
”Les Bronzes” (The Suntanned Ones), his breakthrough satire on Club Med that marked the beginning of a three-film collaboration with ”Monsieur Hire” star Michel Blanc.
”I don`t disown any of the films I`ve made,” he said. ”Some have been successful, others less so, but I was happy to make them all.”
He acknowledges, however, that ”Monsieur Hire” and ”The Hairdresser`s Husband” mark a major shift in his career that he intends to continue in his next film, ”Tango,” with ”Cinema Paradiso” star Philippe Noiret.
”It`s going to be a comedy, and it will certainly be my most personal film, because I`ve realized-when I was younger I didn`t realize this, but I`ve come to realize-that comedy is a means of talking about very serious and personal things, but in a comedy you can say much more than when you`re being serious.
”It`s a movie about relationships between men and women. The real subject is that I realize, with great horror, that you can`t live with women and you can`t live without them.
”And vice versa-women can`t live with men and can`t live without them, either. So this great existential question is the subject of this comedy, and maybe when the movie is finished, my wife will sue for divorce-I don`t know,” he said, grinning.
Although Leconte as a boy really did love going to the hairdresser, and really did have to wear itchy woolen swimming trunks knitted by his mother-she actually dug up an old pair that is seen as a wedding gift in the film-the rest of ”The Hairdresser`s Husband” is far from autobiographical.
”I live a very normal life,” Leconte said. A graduate of France`s prestigious IDHEC film school, he worked as a magazine cartoonist and made short films before making his feature debut with 1975`s ”Les Veces Etaient Fermes de l`Interieur,” which starred Jean Rochefort, who plays the title role in ”The Hairdresser`s Husband.”
With the exception of ”Monsieur Hire,” Leconte has written and directed all of his films. He notes proudly that while Simenon hated movies, his children have told Leconte that the celebrated mystery writer did see
”Monsieur Hire” before his death, and was pleased with it.
Leconte and his wife recently celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary;
they have two daughters, ages 7 and 17. ”We`ve had our highs, and our lows, and our highs, and our lows,” he said.
”Movies allow us to bear more easily our love lives with their highs and lows, precisely because in the movies you can tell an ideal love story. It doesn`t happen in life, but the movies allow that. They allow you to dream.”
