Blast from the Past: Catherine Deneuve
Gallic Christophe Honoré wrote and directed Beloved (French: Les Bien-aimés), a romantic drama with music, starring real-life mother-daughter, Catherine Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni.
Grade: B- (*** out of *****)
The secondary cast includes Ludivine Sagnier, Louis Garrel, Radivoje Bukvic, and Paul Schneider.
| Beloved | |
|---|---|
 |
|
The film world premiered to mixed response as closing night of the 2011 Cannes Film Fest.
The story, which is rather thin and rambling, spans from the 1960s through the the 2000s, and set in Paris and other cities, Reims, Montreal, Prague and London.
In the 1960s, Madeline marries Jaromil and gives birth to their daughter Véra. Thirty years later, Véra falls in love with a musician named Henderson.
The characters use melodic musical narration and dialogues throughout the story, which (in my view) qualifies it as a musical.
Messy and rambling, but sporadically charming and consistently light, Beloved is a perfectly watched fluff of a melodrama with music.
Honore lacks the talents and skills of Jacques Demy (“The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” top winner of 1964 Cannes Fest, starring the young Catherine Deneuve), but his cinematic instincts are in the right place, which contribute to the film’s prevalent melancholy tone.
In the central roles, real-life mother and daughter Deneuve and Mastroianni benefit from genuine and sparkling chemistry. Jointly, the femmes render ascilperformances anchor the sprawling tale, when it falters or loses focus (which is often)
Perhaps inspired by her own personal life, which was defined by romantic daring, Deneuve is especially compelling as a femme who has embraced romantic adventurism and now is able to observe her younger self without remorse or regret.
The film’s last shot is iconic, a close-up of Deneuve’s red shoes, which she drops as an older femme when entering into her past as her younger self.
Cast
Chiara Mastroianni as Véra
Catherine Deneuve as Madeleine
Ludivine Sagnier as Madeleine
Louis Garrel as Clément
Radivoje Bukvic as Jaromil
Paul Schneider as Henderson
Michel Delpech as François Gouriot
Rasha Bukvic as Jaromil
Credits:
Directed, written by Christophe Honoré
Cinematography Rémy Chevrin
Music by Alex Beaupain
Production: Why Not Productions
Distributed by Le Pacte
Release dates: May 22, 2011 (Cannes Fest); August 11 2011 (France)
Running time: 139 minutes
Budget € 6.8 million
