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TIMES REMEMBERED

Today's film was Christophe Honoré's

Les bien-aimés / Beloved (2011)

Thirty years of love and relationship are shown with Catherine Deneuve as the star attraction. The french is "the beloved" which is more plural and descriptive of the picture. Manyt relationships.

The same singing treatment is given here as in Honoré's Love Songs which was so dear to us and still is.

This is a much larger, sprawling story and is, for the most part, quite as enjoyable.

The cast is superb, some from the previous film and including the surprise performance of the director Milos Forman and aged version of Deneuve's first love.

The songs fold right in as part of the action, monologue or dialogue. It is a nice technique. No dancing in the streets.

The frustration of love between a straight woman and a gay man is included in the variety of affairs and involvements. In Love Songs, the whole point of the story was gay fulfillment between a reluctant but willing "straight" man and a gay man. Less complicated. There is a lot more "triste" in this one.

This film is also a bit disjointed as a result of the scope. More people, more complications. But it is brought together nicely at the end.There is more death. More disappointment. Not necessarily more joy but that is harder to figure out. Dead is dead. Alive is a bit more uncertain about the degree of "success" we have at it.

I liked the film and don't want to compare the two. Now that I have.

I would not mind seeing this one again although it is not a must. A 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films