I've Loved You So Long

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I've Loved You So Long
Directed by Philippe Claudel
Produced by Yves Marmion
Written by Philippe Claudel
Starring Kristin Scott Thomas
Elsa Zylberstein
Music by Jean-Louis Aubert
Cinematography Jérôme Alméras
Editing by Virginie Bruant
Distributed by UGC Distribution
Release date(s) March 19, 2008 (2008-03-19) (France)
Running time 115 minutes
Country France
Canada
Language French
Box office US$22,272,176[1]

I've Loved You So Long (French: Il y a longtemps que je t'aime) is a 2008 French-language drama film written and directed by Philippe Claudel. It tells the story of a woman struggling to interact with her family and find her place in society after spending fifteen years in prison.

Contents

[edit] Plot

When Juliette Fontaine is released from prison after serving a fifteen-year sentence, her younger sister Léa invites her to stay with her family - including her husband Luc, his mute father Papy Paul, and their two adopted Vietnamese daughters, P'tit Lys and Emelia - in their home in the university town of Nancy in Lorraine. Léa, a college professor of literature, is considerably younger than Juliette. The younger woman recalls little about her childhood. Because of the nature of Juliette's crime (a secret which is revealed at the end of the film), their parents denied Juliette's existence and refused to allow Léa to visit her. In addition, Juliette had refused to speak throughout her trial. As a result, Léa knows nothing about the circumstances surrounding the crime and, when pressed for details, Juliette refuses to discuss what happened.

While struggling to find employment, Juliette enjoys platonic companionship with two men, probation officer Capt. Fauré, who understands how prison can damage the human spirit and shares with her his dream of seeing the Orinoco River, and Michel, one of her sister's colleagues. She also develops a close relationship with her young nieces, much to the distress of their father, who is concerned about their safety while in their aunt's presence.

Juliette finds work transcribing medical records for a hospital, where her supervisor encourages her to be more friendly with her co-workers when they complain about her being cold and distant. But Juliette has been confined for so long she feels dehumanized and finds it difficult to relate to others. She agrees to accompany Léa when she visits their mother, who is confined to a nursing home with Alzheimer's disease. For a brief moment the woman recognizes and embraces her, remembering her as a little girl rather than the estranged daughter who murdered her grandson.

Gradually, Juliette begins to fit in with her family, makes friends and is given a permanent job. Léa then accidentally discovers a clue to Juliette's secret, leading to the film's final revelations: Juliette was a well respected doctor; her young son had been diagnosed with a fatal and painful disease. When the disease progressed, Juliette had euthanized him so he wouldn't suffer. During her trial, she had felt so guilty for what she had done, she hadn't defended herself. Lea confronts Juliette with what she has learned and asks why she had never explained or asked for help leading to an emotional breakdown between the sisters. Juliette, finally able to express her feelings and describe in detail what she did and why, is able to come to terms with the past and move on.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Theatrical release

The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 14, 2008 and opened in France and Belgium on March 19. It was shown at the Telluride Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Cambridge Film Festival, the Vancouver International Film Festival, and the Chicago International Film Festival before going into limited theatrical release in the US on October 24, when it opened on nine screens and earned US$72,205 on its opening weekend. It eventually grossed US$3,110,292 in the US and US$15,735,514 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of US$18,845,806.[1]

[edit] Critical reception

Reviews for I've Loved You So Long were generally positive, earning a 90% freshness rating at Rotten Tomatoes based on 115 reviews as of May 23, 2009.[2] The consensus stated that I've Loved You So Long is a sublimely acted family drama as well as a noteworthy directorial debut from Phillipe Claudel. The film fared 79% worth of 28 generally favorable reviews amongst critics at Metacritic.[3]

[edit] Tone

Critics noted the film's potentially problematic mixture of tones, as it veers between foreboding and sentimentality. A.O. Scott of the New York Times said, "Mr. Claudel’s practice of fading slowly to black between scenes, and the spidery tones of Jean-Louis Aubert’s score, create an atmosphere of mystery and dread that is both appropriate to the story and a little misleading. If I’ve Loved You So Long is not exactly a horror movie, it is nonetheless filled with fear and foreboding . . . This kind of narrative is familiar enough, and so are the risks of sentimental talk-show piety associated with it." He concluded, however, that the film has a "tough-minded resistance to the temptations of melodrama".[4] Derek Elley of Variety called the film "utterly engrossing despite being, on the surface, about very little" and added, "Claudel's script is built out of everyday, unmelodramatic events, succinctly dialogued and not nearly as downbeat as the movie sounds on paper."[5] Kenneth Turan was even more positive, describing the film as "An example of the French tradition of high-quality adult melodrama, conventional in technique but not story, this thoughtful, provocative film is slow developing because it's all about character".[6]

Scott was not entirely convinced by the film's ending. He wrote, "A revelation comes near the end that is both tremendously moving and a bit disappointing, in the way that the solutions to great mysteries frequently are. This turn does not diminish the accomplishment of Ms. Scott Thomas’s deep, subtle and altogether stunning performance, but it does alter the scale of the movie, turning it into a more manageable, less existentially unsettling drama. Which is a relief, I suppose, but also a bit of a letdown." [4]

[edit] Acting and direction

Critics praised the acting, especially that of Kristin Scott-Thomas. A.O. Scott felt that she mitigated the film's tonal problems: "Luckily, Ms. Scott Thomas’s furious honesty rules out easy, unearned redemption".[4] Turan wrote,

"When you're doing a film like this, you want the best acting you can get, and writer and first-time director Philippe Claudel chose brilliantly when he picked Kristin Scott Thomas to star as the shattered Juliette . . . I've Loved You is not without weaknesses . . . but performances this strong and direction this sensitive make us simply grateful to have an emotional story we can sink our teeth into and enjoy." [6]

Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle rhapsodised:

"Kristin Scott Thomas' performance . . . is one of a small handful of highlights by which people will remember this year in movies. This is acting at its most exalted. This is film being used for its supreme purpose and function, to show us, moment by moment, the grand movements of a soul. If we're lucky, we get one or two gifts like this a year . . . I've Loved You So Long is worth seeing more than once, just to watch how Thomas scores the performance from beginning to end . . . [She] plays Juliette as someone with no energy left for pretense . . . At all times, she has about her an aura of sadness and defensiveness . . . None of this is actually spoken in writer-director Philippe Claudel's screenplay."[7]

Elley too found Scott Thomas to be "aces in the lead role, with flashes of mordant wit that prevent it from becoming a dreary study in self-pity." However, he felt that "Zylberstein, a variable actress who's very dependent on her directors, is good here, but lacks Scott Thomas' quiet heft and can't quite handle Lea's occasional emotional outbursts. Still, the sisters' dramatic final talk works just fine." [5]

The critics also praised Claudel's direction. Scott wrote, "Mr. Claudel is gratifyingly absorbed in details of setting and character. And even though the unfathomable horror in Juliette’s past dominates everything else, the small felicities and absurdities of real life manage to peek through the gloom."[4] LaSalle praised his work with the actors:

"It's the beauty of Claudel's design that he is able to suggest the specific nature of Juliette's conflict through pictures, by setting up moments of tension and then generously showing us the face of his lead actress . . . They say a director has to make three great films before he can be called a great. For his debut film, Claudel can check off the first box. He proves himself as adept at controlling a story as he is at directing actors, and his intuitive leap - casting Thomas - was inspired and transformative. He has made Thomas sexy and volatile and has turned her into an actress whose future movies absolutely must be seen." [7]

[edit] Top tens

The film was cited as one of the year's ten best by many critics, including Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News, Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle, Rick Groen of The Globe and Mail, Josh Rosenblatt of the Austin Chronicle, Steve Rea of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Ray Bennett of The Hollywood Reporter, Anthony Lane of The New Yorker, Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post, and David Denby of The New Yorker.[8]

[edit] Awards and nominations

[edit] Home media

The film was released on DVD in France on September 24, 2008, in the UK on February 9, 2009, and in Canada on February 10. Sony issued it on DVD in anamorphic widescreen format in the US on March 3. It has an audio track in French with English subtitles and an English audio track with Kristin Scott Thomas dubbing her own dialogue. Bonus features include deleted scenes with optional commentary by Philippe Claudel.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b BoxOfficeMojo.com
  2. ^ "I've Loved You So Long (2008)." Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2009-05-23
  3. ^ "I've Loved You So Long (2008)." Metacritic. Retrieved on 2009-05-23
  4. ^ a b c d New York Times review
  5. ^ a b Variety review
  6. ^ a b Los Angeles Times review
  7. ^ a b San Francisco Chronicle review
  8. ^ Metacritic 2008 Film Critic Top Ten Lists

[edit] External links
Best Film
Best Film Not in the
English Language
Best British Film
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