I've Loved You So Long
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Movie Reviews of I've Loved You So Long
Movie Review: Incredibly sad movie
Summary: 5 Stars
"I've Loved You So Long" is a French-language movie that stars Kristin Scott Thomas as a woman haunted by her past. Having served prison time for 15 years for murder, Juliette Fontaine is released on parole and goes to live with her younger sister, Lea [Elsa Zylberstein] who was only a teenager when Juliette was sent to prison. Juliette finds it awkward reconnecting with people, and it's especially hard as Lea is married and has two adopted Vietnamese daughters, and a father-in-law who is recovering from a stroke. Things are made more difficult by Lea's husband Michel who can't reconcile with Juliette's living with them, considering the crime she committed. I won't give too much of the plot away, as this is a movie that unfolds slowly and rewards the patient viewer with all the necessary information in good time.
The plot may seem slow in revealing the details one wishes to know, such as the unspeakable crime Juliette has committed and why she is such a tormented, distant soul, but this actually worked for me as Juliette's character is fully- developed here and the viewer is rewarded with one of the most poignant and nuanced performance by an actress. Kristin Scott-Thomas is remarkable in this movie, and her French is excellent [there is also an English audio option in which she actually does the dubbing for her part]. Her portrayal of a fragile and tormented woman who is haunted by her past and struggling to go on with her life on a daily basis is nothing short of amazing. She truly deserved the Golden Globe nomination for her performance. Elsa Zylberstein is also very credible as lea, Juliette's compassionate younger sister who tries her best to penetrate the wall of silence Juliette has erected around her. The supporting cast also does a good job - the tortured parole officer who pines for his ex-wife and kids, the college lecturer who is romantically interested in Juliette and a few others - I thought the cast did a credible job in holding the film together and elevating it above another melodrama.
This is a depressing movie and definitely one that leaves you pondering on many important life issues - choices, regrets, relationships and many more. But, I feel more enlightened for having watched it, and would recommend it to anyone who is keen on human dramas with substance.
Movie Review: I've been away so long
Summary: 5 Stars
Kristin Scott Thomas plays Juliette Fontaine, a British woman whose family relocated to France when she was a child. She has been away, and her younger sister, Lea (Elsa Zylberstein), picks her up at the airport. Where Juliette has been and why she has been away for so long are revealed gradually, resulting in an almost mystery-like tension. However, even if you already know pieces of this "mystery," the tension is still palpable, although my review won't reveal any additional details.
What I enjoyed about "I've Loved You So Long" is the circuitous path this French film takes. Just when I thought I had guessed where it would go next, it zigged and zagged and ended up someplace else completely. I also loved the complex character portrayed by Scott Thomas. Juliette is a catalog of contrariness - she's drab yet luminous, cool yet simmering with emotions, angry yet hurt and vulnerable. She's complex, which is something we don't see often enough in movies, and Scott Thomas plays her masterfully. In lesser hands, Juliette would come across as simply stubborn and aloof, but we can see more beneath this hard exterior long before Scott Thomas makes it overt. She won several awards for her work, and she should have received an Academy Award nomination as well (her performance was far better than Angelina Jolie in "The Changeling"). Her Juliette arguably is the highlight of her career, even better than her work in "The English Patient."
The setting for the film is also inspired. Rather than filming in Paris or sunny Southern France, "I've Loved You So Long" takes place in gloomier Northern France, near the city of Nancy. The cinematography is pitch perfect throughout without being too obvious. The rain-soaked and dreary days correspond perfectly to Juliette's drab clothing color palette (she dresses like a depressed secretary) to convey a strong environment for the character to inhabit. Finally, I appreciated that "I've Loved You So Long" is essentially an old-fashioned tear-jerker, yet it aspires to be more. And it succeeds. The emotional scenes aren't meant to simply wring a tear from the audience but also to make us think. The film tackles difficult issues involving family and loyalty, but it isn't afraid to be a bit cerebral and even a tad sexy at times.
Movie Review: Beautiful and touching story about love between sisters
Summary: 5 Stars
[Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon.]
I need to watch a movie like this once in a while. Otherwise I might never cry. And crying is cathartic.
French cinema is about relationships. I wonder how it became so intensely about relationships in a way that no other national cinema is about relationships. I don't know. This one is about the relationship between sisters done in a way that I have never seen before. And that I like. I am so bored with reprises and remakes of themes, as good as they sometimes are. This is not about sisterhood politically. And thank you for that. It is about real sisterhood under confusing and difficult circumstances, when there is estrangement for very good reasons, yet there is love to overcome whatever it is that causes the distance.
In this case Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) has been released after 15 years in prison. Her younger sister Lea (Elsa Zylberstein) who always adored her and looked up to her takes her in. She has her own family, two adopted Vietnamese girls, a husband and a father who is old and can no longer speak. Naturally bringing Juliette into their household is risky. What has Juliette done and why? It is really unspeakable and yet Lea believes like all "bleeding hearts" that her sister is essentially good and whatever happened happened for a reason, and so do we in the audience. Kristin Scott Thomas plays this part of the film with a long, suffering face and the sort of resignation that comes with complete defeat. So we know. Whatever happened to her, whatever she did was forced upon her by the fates. What we don't know is exactly what that was.
I cannot say enough about the exquisite performances by both Kristin Scott Thomas and Elsa Zylberstein. The direction by Philippe Claudel was, in the French manner, focused on people and who they are, done unobtrusively in the best invisible style in which the story and the characters are what we see without directorial distraction. We are lost in the story and the existential conflict between what we are and what is thought of us by others. We are caught between the appearance of life and the reality.
Movie Review: A Master Class In Fine Acting
Summary: 5 Stars
A poem to someone they love-'I've Loved You So Long'. The beginning or the end of an extraordinary journey, depends on how you look at this.
Juliette played by Kristen Scott Thomas is picked up at the airport by her sister. Both sisters have been long lost- one to prison, Juliette; the other, Lea to a family who removed Juliette from their lives. They pick up as Juliette moves into Lea's home with her husband, two children and a father-in-law who cannot speak as a result of a stroke. How does one go about learning to live a life after 15 years in prison, with difficulty. Along the way, Juliette meets people who help her move into the mainstream. Along the way comes difficulties, how to explain those missing 15 years, the aloofness, the inability to connect with others.
Kristin Scott Thomas is extraordinary in this role. She is able to convey with a flick of her eyes or a downward glance the emotions of a woman just barely able to breathe. The supporting cast is perfect- a caring sister, a brother-in-law who is not trusting and two children who love their aunt, just because. Juliette reports weekly to a probation officer who may be one of the few who understand her old world and how to come to terms with her new world. The men she meets along her journey- she does not give her heart freely.
"Anton Chekhov, the Russian author whose works famously presented major emotions in a minor key, finding hard nuggets of truth in the small details of everyday life. And Kristen Scott Thomas is Chekhovian in every manner." Peter Travers
This is a flawless role for Kristin Scott Thomas. She is the film, this is a master class in fine acting.
Highly Recommended. prisrob 03-26-09
Random Hearts
Movie Review: Impeccable Acting
Summary: 5 Stars
Kristin Scott Thomas has long been a favorite actress to watch, a friend describes her simply as "compelling." I loved this movie! Ms. Scott Thomas embraces the role with intelligence and keen insight. She is multilingual, speaks flawlessly in French, wears no make-up in the film, and conveys most of her inner emotions through grey blue eyes and kinesics. The verbal brevity of her character, Juliette, sustains the dark family secret that resulted in her becoming a pariah, shunned by family, friends and colleagues... imprisoned for 15 years, leaving the viewer patiently awaiting any tidbit of information. The movie's title and premise is centered around the unwavering, yet cloudy relationship with her younger sister, the only family member willing to give her shelter. The viewer is chomping at the bit to know the secret, but the pace of the film allows one to comfortably wait it out as you follow her travails. She shines in her performance as a newly released inmate handling a demeaning position at work, dealing with a hostile brother-in-law, a new social interest, and an uncomfortable living situation. The viewer is drawn in immediately to her tremendous strength and despair, waiting for the unveiling of her past and how it will play on the present and future. No more information or it would take away from the restrained suspense! A fantastic movie, subtitles are not even noticed, shortly after the initial scene, a difficult car ride home, with the sister she has loved so long...