Sunday, March 15, 2009
TRUTH AND FREEDOM
Today's film is the estimable
Il y a longtemps que je t'aime / I've Loved You So Long (2008)
with the even more estimable Kristin Scott Thomas as a woman on the right) who is returning to her sister after a decade in prison.
The film is a series of vignettes, more than plot actually, that show the steady progress of returning from the life she had to the life that is to come.
We slowly see the story behind her incarceration as she slowly opens up to the vibrant life around her.
Scott Thomas is one of my favorite actresses. In this, she is a plain jane rather than her usual sophisticate woman of the world. She is wonderful and is surrounded by a wonderful cast.
This film is enormously gratifying. Quietly emotional. Beautifully realized in its short scenes.
The sister's family and friends provide a loving place for the ex-inmate to heal and grow back into the world. It is a very gentle film. While the subject matter is dead serious, the treatment is not horrific nor made to shock.
The relationship between the two sisters is central and wonderful to watch develop not only to its old level but to new adult dimensions as well.
Incidentally this is a French film. Scott Thomas is one of the few perfectly bilingual actors in the world. Although they do give her character some time in England to cover if the French hear an English accent. I wouldn't know, of course, but it is an interesting facet of her career that she appears and has awards in both languages.
I will give this a 4 out of Netflix5.
