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I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG. Dir Philippe Claudel. 2008

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Kristen Scott Thomas plays Juliette, a woman just released from prison after serving 15 years. Reunited with her much younger sister, Léa (Elsa Zylberstein), Juliette tries to find where she fits in with her family and the outside world.

When first seen, Juliette looks depressed, is silent and withdrawn, and almost hostile to her younger sister’s attempts to integrate her into her own warm family set up. It is not clear for a while where she has been, why the sisters are estranged, and why Juliette seems so resentful. Léa’s husband, Luc, is suspicious and family tensions are nicely observed.

With little dialogue and a strongly visual emphasis, the narrative flowed a bit slowly at times and the reason for her imprisonment could have come a bit earlier. Only one scene in the entire film was clumsy exposition, with the awkward attempt by a social worker to draw out Juliette. Deeply wounded and fragile, she is too intelligent to be befriended by a busybody, however well meaning, and her experience too devastating for a girlie chat.

Her probation officer talks openly to her about his own disaffection, as if he seeks the intimacy that she shuns. This man with the open manner, beautiful eyes and expression fails to move her but she learns that the unhappiness that he chatters about so easily masks a deeper pain than her own. When she finally tells her story, in a powerful scene with Léa, their mutual pain is searing, and makes a striking and dramatic contrast with this otherwise quietly paced film.

Acting is very fine by the whole cast. Scott Thomas is deep, strong but damaged and Zylberstein has endless charm and exquisite sensitivity. This is a very sad, intimate story handled with great sensitivity.
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