Il y a longtemps que je t'aime

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.

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.

While I've never been such a Philistine as to decline to see a film because it is in an unknown language and I'd have to read the subtitles, there is usually a sense of emotional distance when you have to read the words yourself. In the case of 'I've Loved You So Long', I felt no such distance. Indeed, this is the first time I've cried in a movie since... I don't know when. Sure, I am a callous bastard, but I often find myself moved by a film, only, rarely do I find myself as moved as I was by this one.

'I've Loved You So Long' focuses on the story of Juliette Fontaine coming from prison to live with her sister, who was a young adolescent when she was incarcerated. The tensions of living with an extended family are exacerbated by Juliette's personality, which it is accepted is altered by her time in gaol. Philippe Claudel's story is beautifully structured to release just as much information as is necessary to keep you interested, while retaining just enough mystery to keep you on the edge of your seat.

I have never seen a French film that I haven't liked, but I have also never seen a French film of this calibre. It is an outstanding piece of storytelling, full of pathos and charm.

Last night I watched this brilliant movie for the third time. I can't actually get enough of Ms. Kristin Scott Thomas' performance in this movie. She performs as a rich and complex character in this film. Cinema fans know her from her outstanding performance in "The English Patient (1996)" for which she was nominated as the best leading actress in Academy Awards. 12 years after that performance, in 2008, she beautifully played the role of a woman, better to say a human, who came out of the jail and struggled to be accepted in the society as well as in her own family. It's not just that, the movie has some sense of mystery and little by little the story behind Juliette's, Kristin Scott Thomas', actions and behaviours unfolds itself. She has her own weaknesses, strengths, fears and sorrows. Artfully, Philippe Claudel, the director shows every little details of her changing moods and emotions. I highly recommend this movie for anyone who loves to see a good French movie with some magnificent acting.

Just had the pleasure of seeing this movie in a cinema and I can wholeheartedly recommend it.

The movie touches several very sensitive subjects in a careful and a non-judging way; it left me thinking deeply about the rules of our society, and what happens if one falls through the raster; if what one has done does not fit into the view of the majority and one's actions are not compatible with the rules that society has given itself.

There are scenes that made me laugh, others leaving me absorbed in thought, all the while realising: this is life as it is, sometimes wonderful, sometimes brutal and sad.

The acting is brilliant in my view, the film lives from Kristin Scott Thomas and Elsa Zylberstein, both seem to be made for the characters they play while the rest of the cast, even for the smallest part, seems to have been carefully picked as well. Both actors and director describe the making of the movie as a very interesting experience, something I don't doubt at all after seeing it.

If you get a chance to see the movie, do it. It's worth it.