La Belle Epoque (2019)

Directed by: Nicolas Bedos | 115 minutes | comedy, drama, romance | Daniel Auteuil, Guillaume Canet, Doria Tillier, Fanny Ardant, Pierre Arditi, Denis Podalydès, Michaël Cohen, Jeanne Arènes, Bertrand Poncet, Bruno Raffaelli, Lizzie Brocheré, Thomas Scimeca, Christiane Millet

‘La Belle Époque’ is a fine French film, which cleverly responds to today’s society (such as the gadget fatigue of many people) and tells a universal and timeless story: sometimes you just need a different look at your life to see everything again. put into proper perspective.

Victor (Daniel Auteuil) is in his sixties, has been married to Marianne (Fanny Ardant) for years, but the passion is nowhere to be seen. They have grown apart. Where Marianne has clearly moved with the times, Victor has remained stuck in the period when he still had a job as a cartoonist at a newspaper. Before going to sleep, Marianne puts on virtual reality glasses to imagine herself in better places than next to her husband in his drab grandpa pajamas and during a dinner with family and friends she makes fun of him because he doesn’t understand tablets, apps and streaming services. And she’s right about the latter, because Victor not only doesn’t understand it, he doesn’t bother to invest in it either.

When Marianne is tired of Victor’s old-fashioned and ingrained attitude, she unceremoniously puts him out on the street. It gives her the chance to finally go full throttle for her affair with Victor’s former boss. Victor realizes that he no longer has any obligation or purpose in his life and he decides to take advantage of the gift his son Maxime (Michaël Cohen) gave him. It is a voucher for a very special experience: experiencing a period in history. You are the protagonist, you choose a period and event, for example a party with Marie-Antoinette, and everything is worked out down to the smallest details.

The owner of the company that conceived and made this concept a success, Antoine (Guillaume Canet), is a childhood friend of Victor’s son. Victor surprises the employees of the company by choosing a period of his own life, specifically a certain date in 1974, when he met a woman in café La Belle Époque whom he loved very much. Antoine knows Victor from the past and all stops are pulled out to make Victor’s choice an unforgettable experience. Antoine understood from Maxime what all depends on it.

‘La Belle Époque’ constantly switches from the acted reality to the real reality. It is nice and especially clever that Margot, the actress who plays Victor’s lover, has a difficult relationship with Antoine in real life. Antoine mainly acts as a director as a businessman and is – admittedly – ​​not exactly the easiest to work with. This gives the film several layers and the screenplay is very ingenious. You are going to care not only about the fate of poor Victor, who immediately earns the viewer’s sympathy, but also that of Antoine and Margot.

‘La Belle Époque’ easily looks away and offers a funny form of escapism, with a wonderfully acting Auteuil and a perfectly cast Doria Tillier. The film is sometimes reminiscent of “Westword” and ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, but the story has too much individuality to fall for that. ‘La Belle Époque’ is a well-acted romantic comedy, with a serious layer and a valuable message.