Review of I've Loved You So Long (2008) by Everett J — 16 Feb 2009

Il y a longtemps que je t'aime (I?ve Loved You So Long).

Written and directed by Philippe Claudel.

Starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Elsa Zylberstein, Serge Hazanavicius, Laurent Grévill, Frédéric Pierrot, Jean-Claude Arnaud, Lise Ségur.

A woman named Juliette Fontaine (Thomas) has recently been released from prison after completing a fifteen year sentence for murdering her son. She returns to society stunned and heartbroken and moves in with her sister Léa (Zylberstein), Léa?s husband Luc (Hazanvicius), their two children and Luc?s father Paul (Arnaud). Initially Juliette struggles with the reality of her freedom as well as her relationship with Léa which has grown strained over the course of her incarceration.

The film has something of a surprise ending which proves to mold Juliette in a decisively different light. We learn of the circumstances of her murder of her son at the tale end of the film and it forces us to reinterpret what has come before. It?s kind of a sleazy trick but it provides Juliette with an opportunity to explain herself and her motivations for completing such a heinous act.

Kristin Scott Thomas plays Juliette with tremendous grace and dignity. Her performance in this film slowly opens to reveal a woman of great courage who has suffered immensely in such a way that she will never quite be healed of the wound. Thomas provides Juliette with a searing reticence that she erects as a barrier to keep others out.

Juliette has an exceedingly difficult time adjusting to her present circumstances. She is reserved and finds it loathsome to discuss her past in any detail. Still, it seems as if others insist on prying which only proves to widen the gap between them. There is tremendous tension between Juliette and Léa as neither of them truly know how to openly communicate with the other. There are many scenes of Juliette staring out a window or into space. She clearly finds it difficult to reveal anything about herself and the pain of attempting to is drawn on her face.

Painstakingly Juliette begins to put the pieces of her shattered life back together. She attempts to get a job and is booted out after admitting she killed her six year old son. Eventually she finds a job at a hospital which causes new difficulties because she was working at a hospital at the time she was imprisoned.

A man named Michel (Grévill) who works with Léa at a school quietly creeps into Juliette?s life although the film manages to make their courting subtle and unimposing. It?s one of the aspects of this film that is handled particularly well. All we get is a hint of where the relationship might be headed without any decisively overt behavior to shatter the mystery and ruin the subplot. Indeed, Michel takes Juliette home one evening and moves to make a play for her but she pushes his hand aside and tells him she?s not ready yet. There are many quiet moments between them that suggest but don?t state emphatically the nature of their relationship. One can only guess that they will eventually connect on a more physical level but that?s left strictly to conjecture.

Juliette?s overarching sadness drapes the film from beginning to end. She doesn?t seem to be able to enjoy most of what she experiences in her new living situation. There is a heaviness about her that doesn?t wash off until maybe the end when she moves into her own place, achieves a permanent position at the hospital and perhaps because she realizes something is happening with Michel. In other words this film deals with a woman who has been brought low by circumstances that she initiated. She has a terribly difficult time reconnecting with her sister but gradually comes out of her shell seeming to thrive. It?s a typical story of a wounded person being able to recover some of their sense of purpose and regaining a semblance of Selfhood in the process. She is given a chance to return to society and she takes full advantage of it.

Much of the dialog comes from Léa?s eight year old Vietnamese daughter P'tit Lys (Lise Ségur). She is naturally curious about Juliette and perhaps to protect her innocence Juliette lies to her and says she?s been away on a long trip. There is a scene where Juliette lingers over the child after reading her a bedtime story. It?s a fairly painful scene to watch because one is struck with the agony which Juliette must be feeling seeing a healthy child without a care in the world.

This is an open film that articulates the seemingly insignificant instances that make up a life. There is no great epiphany here but rather a series of quiet moments that slowly build up over time. Juliette comes out into the world after a long sentence that has provided her with ample opportunities to ruminate over what she has done. We learn that she said nothing during her trial which may or may not have reduced her sentence if she had bothered to try to explain herself. Most likely the court would not be swayed by her testimony and she would have suffered the same sentence anyway. Still, there is a sense that she felt as if she deserved the full sentence and would rather spend her time in prison than be free. It?s a complicated situation and of course it isn?t possible to crawl inside her head but one is left to wonder about her psychological state at the time.

Near the end we learn the circumstances that led to Juliette?s son?s death. All along we merely know that she killed him but we don?t know precisely how. This causes an uproar between the two sisters as Léa insists that if she had only known then she could have been able to help. Juliette fires back that there was nothing whatsoever than anyone could have done to save her son. It?s a purely agonizing exchange between two women who remain but strangers to one another.

There are just some crosses that one must bear alone and there is noone who can stave off the inevitable sorrow that inevitably arises out of such situations. This film exposes the gulf that necessarily exists between one person and another, however intimate they may have become. The sisters?s mother is suffering from dementia and most days confuses Léa for the nurse. When Juliette visits her mother recognizes her but imagines her when she was much younger. Juliette?s parents told everyone who bothered asking that she was dead. Léa is essentially all she has left of family and this bond is initially stressful for Juliette who has hardly enjoyed a visitor during the length of her incarceration.

The performances in this fill all relate the various emotional truths begging to be released from the characters. Kristin Scott Thomas maneuvers herself through a decidedly difficult mind field working with a character who has almost entirely shut herself off from the world. Thomas elicits a tremendous amount of empathy for her character regardless of the circumstances of her son?s murder. The audience believes in Juliette because Thomas believes firmly in her as well. Elsa Zylberstein is dynamic and highly watchable as the put-upon sister who truly just wants to help Juliette figure it all out. Léa is a bit more upset by the circumstances that have suddenly shifted about her and she is clearly suffering from not being allowed an in to Juliette. She is the problem solver and her inability to solve Juliette frustrates her immensely.

Overall, this film captures a particular set of circumstances that have left one woman reeling after surviving a fifteen year jail sentence. It keeps the facts about Juliette?s son?s death until the very end and alters the film irrevocably in the process. The audience is forced back to reinterpret various impressions that have been gathered over the course of the film. What is our impression of Juliette once we know who she is and what she has done? What is this impression based on? The final trick forced the audience into attempting to reconstruct the entirety of the film as one attempts to come to some sort of conclusion about Juliette. There are many more questions that arise and perhaps would have been more poignant if the ending hadn?t come to us in this particular form. Of course, the end does provide us with enough rope to hang ourselves as we must struggle with the truths implied and stated directly in this film.