NYT Defenses: "Frontier of Dawn"

Mirrors of Love, Unapologetically Yours
By Manohla Dargis
Published: March 6, 2009
http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/movies/06dawn.html?ref=movies

This article talks mainly about the performances of the main characters, Laure Smet who plays Carole and Louis Garrel who plays Francois. Dargis says their performance is strong at the beginning but falls out throughout the movie. She also summarizes the relationship both of these character have and the conflicts that come about with Carole’s husband and Francois’ other girlfriend Eve (Clementine Poidatz).

The lede is just a tiny summary of the main conflict in the film. It catches the readers attention in a way to get them interested in the film, but you can’t really tell what Dargis’s entire review is from the lede. The “but” statement is not until the very end of the review. It is the first two sentences of the last paragraph, “The younger Mr. Garrel, whose free flowing tears and beauty were designed for tragedy never seems to have to work hard to seduce an audience, and the easiness of his charm can make him appear overly callow. But because he wears it lightly, that charm can also seem like a flimsy defense, which in turn invests him with an acute air of vulnerability.” The kicker is a description of director Philippe Garrel’s commitment of love.