I've Loved You So Long is a slow burning, deeply psychological drama in the rich tradition of European - and particularly French - cinema. I never used to like these films when I was younger but I love them now, at a time when there seems to be fewer like them made.
Critical and popular acclaim for this film centres mainly around the performance of Kristin Scott-Thomas, one of those rare English-folk who speak perfect French and exude Gallic beauty and style. Scott-Thomas plays Juliette, a doctor and convicted murderer. When invited upon realease by her estranged sister Lea to live with her family, Juliette leaves much of the past unspoken despite her remaining, at least emotionally, imprisoned.
Director Philippe Claudel is a French novelist by primary vocation and he releases fragments of information slowly and carefully. The relationship of Juliette and her sister Lea is given time to develop, and the bridge that the younger sister so clearly wishes to build between them is constructed brick by brick, always threatening to topple if the trauma within finally breaks its levies.
"This is a film whose power lies in its restraint and the impact of its emotions compound as our hearts open wider and wider with each revelation," Louise Keller of Urban Cinefiles wrote.
"(It is) an exquisitely rendered story of reconciliation and redemption, which has something of a thriller's structure but is really all about relationships," Michael O'Sullivan of the Washington Post.
I've Loved You So Long screens this Friday 17th July at 7.30pm at Port Fairy Cinema in Bank Street. Memberships available at the door with free tea and coffee provided.
Click below to watch trailer:
