I've Loved You So Long (2008)

Oliver Stone fans beware: This movie doesn't knock you over the head. Everything is understated, from the screenplay, to the way the movie is shot, to the understated performances. Best is the Oscar-winning (that's a prediction!) Kirsten Scott-Thomas. Her nuanced and deep performance says so much more about her character than any other mode of presentation.

It's interesting that KST has done better with her French roles than her English-speaking ones. Perhaps it's the nature of her material. Perhaps it's that as a second language, French allows her face and body to do much of the acting. The subtle changes in her character from beginning to end is as nuanced as the movie, but discernible and clear, made more believable by the way KST takes us there.

As for the closing denouement, without spoiling: Does it really matter why she was gone, what she did, or why she did it? This film rightly focused us on her as a person with a past, rather than what the past was.

Il y'a longtemps que j'ai vu un film francais si bon!

Fmovies: I found that this film stayed with me for a few days after I'd seen it. The film shows some strange behaviours which are resolved as the story unfolds (e.g., the initial attitude of the brother-in-law which seems both heartless towards his sister-in-law and insensitive towards his wife). The portrayal of the relationship of the sisters is well done while the development of the relationship between Scott-Thomas and Greville is beautifully drawn - in a way that only French directors manage; the smallest gestures having deep meaning. I thought the direction of the older child was nothing short of outstanding - that is how articulate 7 to 8 year old children behave. I think that this is a life-affirming film despite the obvious losses. There is both a literal and symbolic birth.

This may be the film that makes Kristin Scott Thomas's reputation as not a good actress but a great one. It is a French film, and one has to accept the parameters of French 'intimisme'; as such it is wonderful. It is not a question of being a parent or not: it's a question of being ready or not to be swept out of one's daily self by great acting. Elsa Zylberstein is a fine actress (I remember her with affection in 'Farinelli'), but Scott Thomas here surpasses anything she has done before. She is capable, we knew, of making herself nearly ugly ('Angels and Insects'); she can do understated sensitivity ('Four Weddings and a Funeral'); here she gets a part of the emotional power of a Medea or a Phaedra and plays it with the let-it-rip force of a great tragédienne. The film is a vehicle for an actress, and none the worse for that. It is not unworthy of her, and that may be the best one can say of Claudel's work; but that may just be enough. There was a curiously fugitive quality to KST's interviews about this film: one got the impression she didn't really want to talk about it in more than mundane depth. One can see why. It all goes very near the bone. She may want to do a sheer glorious comedy next, just to remind us all of the blithe side of her nature. Long may she live, and work.

I've Loved You So Long fmovies. This film has been crafted almost to perfection, the touch used is delicate and very realistic. It is interesting that such a slow pace should be so engrossing but it is. Thanks I think to the brilliant acting from everyone. Kirstin Scott Thomas stands out for such an understated performance, that when she does towards the end of the film show such deep emotion you are blown away. Her co stars do a great job keeping up with her, specifically Elsa Zylberstein playing her sister,the woman can cry on demand a face full of expression. Frederic Pierrot as the policeman, whose brilliance is only realised at the end of his part of the story. Jean Claude Arnaud as the grandfather, who without saying a word through the whole film is masterful. There could be a danger that this film is seen as a trudge through human emotion but I can assure you it is more than that. You will leave the cinema for filled and uplifted by the whole experience.

Claudel provides a lesson for American film makers and a lasting pleasure for the audience. The cast is evenly excellent with Kristin Scott Thomas and Elsa Zylberstein the personifications of things felt and not said to siblings. It is such a pleasure to watch actors and actresses who look like people instead of an eight by ten glossy of themselves. Serge Hazanaviciius, Laurent Grevil, Frederic Pierrot, Jean-Claude Amaud and little Lise Se'gur form a perfect framework for the two stars. With no special effects and little background music, the viewer can concentrate on the slow peeling of layer after layer of revelation. The beauty revealed at its core is the result of action, not an attempt to tie up loose ends nor a deus ex machina. Snar

This is one of those films that, the less you know about it in advance, the more you are likely to appreciate it - which makes reviewing it a little problematic. All you really need to know is that it's French and excellent. But you might like to know that it's a wonderful vehicle for Kristin Scott Thomas, the British actress married to a Frenchman, who plays Juliette, an Anglo-French woman with some dark and painful secrets which only slowly unfold as the narrative takes its traumatic course. The movie opens and closes with close-ups of her haunted face and, in between, she is rarely off the screen in a marvellously nuanced performance, well supported by Elsa Zylberstein who plays her younger sister Léa. Written and directed by Philippe Claudel, this is French movie-making at its best.