Rent Loulou (1980)

Worth watching for the two lead performances: early Huppert and Depardieu - Loulou review by RM

A slow build to this slice of life set in suburban Paris, slow enough that you begin to think that there's no plot and they are making up the dialogue on the hoof. The characters - lowlife Depardieu and Huppert's incredibly young, smart wife disappointed in her marriage to a bourgeois husband with anger management problems - are intriguing enough in themselves, but for amateurs of nouvelle vague there are many nods to the masters in the anti-hero choice of subjects, cinematic technique, settings and the deliberate avoidance of any moral attitude. My first encounter with Pialat's work: imperfections, yes, but worth pursuing.