Il Y a Longtemps Que Je T’aime (I’ve Loved You So Long)

Kristin Scott Thomas is at her alluring best when she plays the role of Juliette in “Il y a longtemps que je t’aime” (I’ve loved you so long) released in September 2008. She’s a woman who guards a dark secret which I’ll try very hard not to give away here, though it’s difficult to review and enthuse about a movie without talking about its contents – not many succeed!

We first meet Juliette in a provincial airport in France where we also meet her estranged sister (Elsa Zylberstein). From there we watch the family dance around the thing that no-one is allowed to mention, and over the course of the nicely-paced and compelling 115 minutes the secret and its ramifications are drawn out bit by bit.

At various points during the movie the music score seems to be on the verge of breaking into yet another incompetent, facile, bland, commercial cover version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”, but mercifully this is not the case; dear Leonard’s art remains unsullied and the sensitivities of the paying public are spared.

Juliette is revealed as a woman of incredible compassion, courage and devotion, although first impressions are of a somewhat dowdy, uninteresting woman who has done nothing with her life. However she has been caught up in an impossible family situation which she must suffer alone, caught between a rock and a hard place. She cannot even reveal information she has that would gain her the sympathy of many. True friendship is beyond her grasp because it inevitably will lead to questions about her whereabouts for the previous 15 years and what she was up to. However there is some companionship to be had for Juliette in the person of her sister’s father-in-law who, after suffering a debilitating stroke, is left without speech but with an active brain and the ability to hear. She can talk to him in monologue without running the risk of the questions that dialogue would permit.

Rebuilding her life 15 years after the event she can confide in no-one. Those who know the facts of her past are mistrustful, suspicious and hostile. Gradually, with the love of her sister and various others who don’t know of her past, she arrives at a place where she begins to live again, but only just. The past will always be there, and the mitigating circumstances which gave rise to her dark secret are known only to the sister and to the movie-goers. It’s frustrating not being able to jump into the set and explain the full story to the other characters. However this is cinema, not pantomime, and we can’t shout out “he’s behind you” when we see a villain creeping up behind the hero. A bit like life.

Philippe Claudel directs.