LA BELLE EPOQUE. Dir. Nicolas Bedos. 2019

Imagine if you could be taken back, to re-enact your most special memory? Could surrendering to your fantasy be dangerous?

Two couples; one middle-aged, with love gone sour, and the other young and creative, who are tormenting each other with the intensity of their passion. All of them are on personal journeys.

Fanny Ardant plays Marianne, a career woman enthusiastic about the present and future, with depressed husband Victor (Daniel Auteuil) who is alienated by digi-tech, and a constant irritant to his wife. Actress Margot (Doria Tiller) and Antoine (Guillaume Canet) are also driving each other crazy.

Antoine is a brilliant entrepreneur, directing a historical reconstruction company, selling clients the chance to live their dreams. Victor accepts his invitation to re-live the evening in 1974 when he met his wife, to a simpler time when ‘people talked to each other.’

This is a clever, charming, and very funny film, well-crafted with excellent writing and direction, and terrific acting throughout. Insightful and surprising screenplay, with its fine observations of human behaviour, it is also touching, wise and compassionate. Highly recommended.

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