I’ve Loved You So Long (Philippe Claudel, 2008)

A delightful film with an unexpectedly thought provoking and moving story to tell, a film that demurely, yet with abrasive honesty, unveils a gritty past with a tragic secret, a film with heartfelt acting and a host of wonderfully charismatic and emotionally accessible characters, I’ve Loved You So Long is stunning.

The film is a portrait of the difficult struggle of a forty-something woman, Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) as she begins her settlement into a life of normality with her sister Lea and her husband Luc (Elsa Zylberstein, Serge Hazanavicius) and their two children, after being released from prison where she served a fifteen year sentence for murder. Harbouring a painful memory from both hers and her sister’s past, we see Juliette come to terms with the reality of her new life as a free woman with the help of her sister and a new-found companionship with Lea’s colleague Michel (Laurent Grevill).

Claudel cleverly depicts the tale of the heartbreaking rift that tore these two sisters apart through an array of powerful dialogue and frequent warming humour in an emotional equilibrium of scenes between the two women as we find that Lea, although Juliette had come to face the facts of her past, is still desperately trying to reach out to her long lost elder sister to unravel the truth and to lift herself out of the agonizing bubble of denial that her parents have kept her in since her sister’s imprisonment, and attempt to re-establish the treasured bond between them that was snatched away fifteen years ago.

With all the elegance of French cinema, and the magnificent emotional rollercoaster ride we experience, the beautifully devised and directed I’ve Loved You So Long will not be one to disappoint.

Rosa Morrison