Les bien-aimes (2011)

Directed by: Christophe Honoré | 135 minutes | drama, romance, musical | Actors: Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Ludivine Sagnier, Louis Garrel, Milos Forman, Paul Schneider, Radivoje Bukvic, Michel Delpech, Omar Ben Sellem, Dustin Segura-Suarez, Guillaume Denaiffe, Clara Couste, Francine Beaur, Anaïs Chetoui, Amélie Flottat, Julia Marty, Jean-Charles Clichet, Bonnie Duvauchelle, Côme Rérat, Fabrice Uhel, Kate Moran

Over the past decade, various directors of European cinema have put their hands on more or less grandiose films, spanning decades, reviewing political events and allowing the main characters to explore every possible happiness and misery. And all in one movie. One outcome is better than the other, but remarkably enough, they usually succeed in getting the spotlight. So is Christophe Honoré, a director in his early forties, whose work has never before appeared in cinemas in the Netherlands. With the moving ‘Les bien-aimés’ he puts a firm foot in the door. Although the film lasts more than two hours and includes the Russian presence in Czechoslovakia, AIDS, suicide and the attacks of September 11, 2001, it almost never feels too much. This is due to the clever structure of the film and the sensitive songs that Honoré has his characters sing.

A light-hearted and colorful beginning shows us the Paris of the sixties, where Ludivine Sagnier works as the young Madeleine in a shoe store. The frivolous Madeleine is tempted to work as a prostitute, simply because she likes to buy expensive clothes and shoes. It is also time to see sex as something casual and cheerful. That’s how she meets the charming Jaromil,
a Prague doctor, who persuades her to go with him to Czechoslovakia. There, while the Russian tanks driving into the city in the background, he turns out not to be the loving father and husband Madeleine expected.

Years later, we see Madeleine with daughter Vera, back in Paris, where they have built a ‘normal’ life with the trusty François, when Jaromil drops by to throw a spanner in the works. This is the beginning of a life full of unrequited love, regret and melancholy, for both mother and daughter. The two are – as it goes – more alike than they would initially like
give in and daughter Vera (Chiara Mastroianni) cannot escape copying her mother’s missteps. However, Vera’s bold behavior is not situated in the cheerful sixties, but in a gray London of the eighties and nineties. Her clothing is predominantly black in complete contrast to her mother’s style. When Vera falls in love with a gay American, who is also HIV positive, her time turns out to be a lot less carefree than her mother’s. And yet, the seductive, free-spirited woman who is simultaneously sensual and sensitive; as bold as it is naive, that is really only possible in French cinema.

We remember Ludivine Sagnier from the mysterious ‘Swimming Pool’, in which she left the viewer confused with her indefinable attraction. She, like other French actresses today (such as Mélanie Laurent from ‘The Beginners’), has a beauty about her that leaves most Hollywood actresses in the cold. Catherine Deneuve proves that as an actress of the generation earlier, she had (and still has) just that.

Vera’s self-destructive infatuation with the American Henderson is difficult for the viewer to accept, but it does show how Vera, following her mother’s lead, clings to someone who will never fully love her. It is therefore inevitable that this romance ends fatally.

Honoré has only lightly touched the political-historical context, he was unable to make a statement in that area. It does give the film the weight it deserves. The
musical-like songs that interrupt the scenes serve the same purpose, often tapping into the emotions of several characters at the same time, leaving a lot to be said. The director has applied just the right proportions, keeping the emphasis on the personal stories of the lead roles and in the end he produces an unconventional and at times sad, but nevertheless
beautiful love story.