Il y a longtemps que je t'aime (2008)
Directed by Philippe Claudel

Film Review

Il y a longtemps que je t'aime marks a promising directorial debut for Philippe Claudel, a successful novelist whose best-known work Les Âmes grises was adapted for cinema in 2005 (with Claudel providing the screenplay).  Claudel's approach is refreshingly restrained and unfussy, avoiding the stylistic flourishes (excessive camera motion, frenetic editing, etc.) which seem to have become de rigueur, even for a naturalistic character-based drama such as this.   The lack of stylisation and visual gimmickery is a good thing for this kind of film, since it gives the actors more of an opportunity to define and project their characters, making the drama more intimate and the emotions we feel far more real.

Claudel's pared down approach to storytelling is appealing but it has its limitations.  Flaws in the writing and the performances are far more noticeable when we do not have the modern cinematic devices to distract us, and this is most apparent towards the end of the film.  The film is most effective in its first half, where the brittle relationship between the two sisters, Juliette and Léa, is developed and the past traumas that have divided them for so long are gradually unravelled.  Things take an abrupt turn for the worse at the end of the film when it is revealed that Juliette is not really culpable of her crimes but is merely the victim of an obsessive guilt complex.  Many would consider this a cop out too far.

It's a shame that such a thoughtful and intelligent drama should end in the kind of plot contrivance that would be embarrassing even in a television soap opera.  The final plot twist may be infuriating to watch but, in all honesty, it does not greatly diminish the film's impact or the sincerity with which it is crafted.  Composed with a genuine understanding of the fragility of human relationships, Il y a longtemps que je t'aime manages to be a compelling and moving study of redemption and rebirth - its effect greatly heightened by a performance from Kristin Scott Thomas that is as haunting as it is poignant.

Film Synopsis

For 15 years, Juliette has had nothing to do with her family and has lived apart, a solitary and tortured existence.  On impulse, she finally decides to renew her acquaintance with her sister, Léa, who has made a successful career for herself and has started a family.  The two women find it hard to communicate at first.  Both are burdened with a secret past which one has all but forgotten but which the other can never escape from...