I've Loved You For So Long

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a movie I wanted t write about, hence the length of time that has passed since my last entry.

I haven’t always loved Kristen Scott Thomas, but I do love her. The first movie I ever saw her in was that silly lovable farce that Prince directed, “Under The Cherry Moon.” I thought her performance as a spoiled rich man’s daughter was really irritating and I only tolerated her on screen presence so that I could watch my idol, Prince. But now I realize that many of her faults in that movie can be attributed to having to perform opposite an insane, selfish, paranoid and egotistical asshole, my idol, Prince. I still love the guy. But I love Kristen even more. She is beautiful and gets even more beautiful as she grows older. She makes me think of a bird, a librarian, a school teacher, a bookish hermit and a lady of statuesque high class, a woman in a painting all in one. I believe one of her greatest assets is the wordless and mercurial expression she conveys through her pensive eyes. Her performance in “I’ve Loved You for So Long” is absolutely stunning.

It is a movie in French which I wanted so much to see in theaters, but it had such small distribution and I was never able to find an accessible theater, so I was thrilled when it finally went to DVD. I rented it on Netflix and watched it last night.

The film is about a woman, Juliette, coming to live temporarily with her younger sister her husband and two daughters after having been released from jail where she spent fifteen years for killing her son. Kristen gives a compelling heartbreakingly reserved and passionate portrayal of this woman struggling to start over, to trust again and to let herself feel anything at all. Elsa Zylberstein, an actress I’m not familiar with is also spectacular as Juliette’s sister Lea. Against her husband’s paranoia and society’s judgment, Lea is unswerving in her love for her older sister and in a faith that her crime involved much more than what is perceived.

There is one beautifully shot scene that I love of the two sisters in a public pool talking. It is one in a series which goes along with a threaded reference throughout the movie to water and its renewing power. But the most incredible scene is pure genius, something layered with discovery and revelation mixed with childhood fantasy and the tradition of storytelling. It’s riveting and pulls you in two different directions only to realize that the duality of the moment is really unified in one path.

I was also so charmed buy the two little Asian girls who played the Lea’s adopted daughters that I’m convinced when I have children I want them to learn French. Their language was like music! And Kristen’s French was superb for a non-native!
It’s a wrenching movie, with light and humorous moments but by no means a delightful romp. But I really appreciate directors who make movies which recognize the beauty in our everyday realities, in the tough issues and the awkward situations. “Once” was another movie which achieved this incredibly well and on a pittance of a budget. But that’s what I feel good movies are about; creativity, giving voice to the voiceless, and challenging our ideas about life as we think we know it.