|
I'VE LOVED YOU SO LONG (iL Y A LONGTEMPS QUE JE'TAIME) Send This Review to a Friend
The huge talent of Kristin Scott Thomas is evident again in this totally engrossing film from France, “I’ve Loved You So Long,” written and directed by Philippe Claudel, which has been prominently showcased at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. Thomas, fluent in French, plays Juliette, a woman who is newly released after 15 years in prison. What she has done and why is eventually made clear after an involving buildup that is part character study, part mystery, and Thomas is likely to be remembered at awards time.
Juliette is taken in by her younger sister, Léa, depicted in another fine performance by Elsa Zilberstein. Léa was a child when Juliette was tried and imprisoned on a charge of murder. Juliette’s brother-in-law is at first resentful of the intruder, but her charming niece, an adopted Asian child, immediately responds warmly to her. Juliette responds in kind, but she is extremely withdrawn as a result of her imprisonment and her repressed feelings about what led to her incarceration. It will obviously take considerable time for her to thaw.
The process is intriguing, as events and relationships gradually lead her along the road to emotional recovery. She finds a job in a hospital in Nancy, where the story is set, and she meets an understanding man, but at first tells him she’s “not there yet.” (She did pick up a man in a bar just after getting out of prison purely to experience physical contact.) Questions remain unanswered for those around Juliette, and for us, but a discovery by Léa leads to a confrontation in which the truth finally explodes.
The bits and pieces that create the mosaic are effective, including a visit by Juliette to her mother, who had rejected her and is now senile, the difficulty Juliette has relating to her co-workers, the shocking turn of events regarding the man to whom she must report following her release from prison and the overall process of gradually joining the world again.
Thomas is fabulous throughout, giving us an intimate view of Juliette’s gradual transformation, building slowly toward her climactic scene with Léa. Claudel wisely ends the film at exactly the right moment, giving us what we need to know and not belaboring the situation as other less astute directors might have been tempted to do. Without providing more information and risking spoiling the experience for you, I can tell you that there is an important ethical issue within Juliette’s story that bears thought and discussion and has been on the agenda in various countries. But the larger concerns are confined within the study of Juliette and her life. This is not primarily an advocacy film, but a very personal one. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
|