Showing posts with label jean renoir. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jean renoir. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

*A Thoughtful Film From The French Cinema- "I've Love You So Long"

Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of The Trailer For "I've Love You So Long".

DVD Review

I’ve Loved You So Long, starring Kristen Scott Thomas, directed by Phillipe Claudel, 2008


I have had a long time interest in well-made foreign films from an earlier period, mainly the then French New Wave. There will be reviews of some of that work in this space in the future but the mood of this recent film (2008) by Phillipe Claudel very much reminds of those earlier efforts.

*****

What is not to like about a very well done film (with French subtitles) about two estranged sisters, Lea and Juliette, who, because the older sister Juliette was in prison for the “murder” of her young son (that really is, as we find out toward the end, whatever moral qualms you might have to the contrary was a mercy killing and not some ruthless, senseless crazy cold-blooded act as one is led to assume at the beginning of the film ) have to come to grips with the fact that they are strangers. Have no fear though blood ties will out here, as the older sister returns to normalcy though an exploration of her truncated relationship with her sister, the sister’s husband, their two adopted children and assorted other interested parties. All through this film starring Kristen Scott Thomas, the woman who was Ralph Fiennes’ love interest (or he her’s) in the excellent “The English Patient”, as Juliette I kept thinking that while American director’s specialize very well in a number of film genres they could never pull this off, with a length of almost two hours to boot. It deserved an award for “Best Foreign Film”. No question.