IL Y A LONGTEMPS QUE JE T'AIME (I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG)
France, 2008, 110 minutes, Colour.
Kristen Scott Thomas, Elsa Zylberstein, Serge Hazanavicius, Laurent Grevill, Frederic Pierrot, Lise Segur, Claire Johnston.
Directed by Philip Claudelle.
Highly recommended for audiences who appreciate a strong human drama. It is insightfully written, powerfully acted and impeccably crafted. If anyone has wondered about the screen presence and acting ability of Kristin Scott Thomas, then this performance should persuade them of her talent.
Novelist Philippe Claudel has created a screenplay with autobiographical elements but focuses on the relationship between two sisters. The older, Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) has been absent for fifteen years. The full details of her story are revealed only gradually, step by step, the final and full story coming at the end of the film. The younger sister, Leah (Elsa Zylberstein), a professor, married with two adopted Vietnamese daughters, welcomes her sister back. She has been alienated from Juliette by her parents but brings her into her home, an opportunity for rehabilitation.
The relationship between the sisters as they confront the past and try to beuild their love again is intensely moving.
The supporting cast is rich in characters: Leah’s initially reluctant husband, Luc; the reserved professor, Michel, who proves to be important in Juliette’s reconstructing her life; the talkative divorce police captain who wants to pour out his soul but ends in tragedy; Luc’s benign scholarly father, mute after experiencing a stroke; and the two little girls, vivacious and loving. Then there are the hostile, suspicious, the rude people that Juliette encounters as she tries to find employment.
This is the story of a woman in mid-life, burdened by extraordinary suffering and trauma, being urged to come alive again through a supportive family and an opportunity for healing. It is the kind of film the French do so well.
1.A profoundly human drama? Humane, characters, relationships, redemption?
2.The city of Nancy, the airport, homes, college, the dance centre, the holiday house? The feel for the city, authentic? The score and the variety of moods?
3.The title, in relationship to Juliette, to Leah? The memories of childhood, the bonds, Juliette caring for Leah, the outings, protection, Juliette’s absence, the parents’ attitude, poisoning Leah’s mind against her sister, recovering the love?
4.The structure, the introduction to Juliette and Leah, the puzzle about Juliette’s life, her character, being away, an institution, discovering it as prison, the gradual revelation of the facts about the case, the effect on Juliette, her being a doctor, her child, illness and the truth?
5.The portrait of Juliette, Kristen Scott Thomas’s strong performance, her appearance, age, initially no makeup, drawn and tense, smoking, lacking social graces? Meeting Leah at the airport, the hesitation, going to the home, her room, Luc and his wariness, meeting the children and their delight in her, her sudden discovery of the grandfather, being in the house, with the family, gradually being at east not wanting Lise to recite the poem and her angry reaction? Going to the grandfather’s room and being comfortable, talking to Luc, talking to Leah, Leah’s remembering and not remembering the past? The story of the parents, their bitterness, the husband and the divorce, the child, the trial, eventually her seeing her mother, her mother suddenly remembering Juliette as a child, then loss of memory, her angers?
6.Pirol, going to see Captain Faure, his talking, his poster with the river, his hopes, pouring out his own life, his divorce, the flights to see his child, his care for Juliette, going to the restaurants, his continued talking, her listening, her encouraging him to go on his holiday, his making his decision, the new officer, Juliette’s shock (and the audience’s) at Faure’s suicide?
7.The lady for interviews about the jobs, her asking questions, the interview at the factory, seemingly accepted, the discovery of the truth, being ordered out? Going to the hospital, Captain Faure’s intervention, her getting the job, at work, the head saying she was not friendly, urging her to be more sociable, her getting the job permanently?
8.Michel, friends with Leah, at college, Juliette meeting him, comfortable with him, talking, his not probing the mystery, Michel with Leah, marking the exams, registering the marks? The visits, the Iraqi doctor and his wife, pregnant, the friends, the at home, the meals? The weekend party, the host drinking, his asking the truth about Juliette, her stating the fact, people laughing and not believing her, Michel realising the truth? Going out, talking gently with her? Taking her to the gallery, the woman in the frame and the memory of the woman he loved? Juliette hearing about his wife’s accidental death? Their talking, the eventual companionship, the gentlest of touches?
9.Juliette without the job, on her own, the memories of the bars, the young man and the pickup, the sexual encounter, telling him it wasn’t good, her later confiding in Leah?
10.The prospect of Juliette looking after the children, Luc and his hostility? Luc and his injury, dislocation, Juliette helping him, his changing his attitude? Suggesting that Juliette look after the children?
11.The character of Leah, tense, her relationship with Luc, tensions in the marriage, her work, her back-story, the adoptions, going to Vietnam, the Vietnamese children, formalities? Little Lise, getting her ready for school, her vitality at home, her room, comfortable with Juliette – despite the rebuff about the poem? The baby and her place in the family?
12.The piano, Lise learning from Juliette, playing, inviting Leah to play, the two sisters happily playing the piano together?
13.The changes in Juliette, willing to go to the dance, yet troubled, weeping, her resentment of Leah, her gratitude to Leah?
14.Leah and her discovering the documents, the poem, the diagnosis? Her ringing the Iraqi doctor? The nature of the disease? His describing it? Leah and her talking with Juliette, Juliette describing her son’s illness, his dying, the decision to kill him? Her saying that the loss of the child is a death for the mother?
15.The purging experience for Juliette, an atonement, reconciliation, the possibility of re-emerging into life and building a new life?
