MovieChat Forums > Les bien-aimés (2011) Discussion > Does anyone know what this is about?

Does anyone know what this is about?


Does anyone know what this is about?
I really like Christophe Honoré, so I am very curious what this next film is about.

Thank you,
Samuel

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If you are still interested in knowing.. I just saw this in theater in France.

(i try to not include spoilers..)
It's an ensemble cast. The plot revolves around a pair of mother and daughter (and the various men in their lives) and traverses through time from the 60s to the modern day. It tells the story of the mother (Sagnier / Deneuve) - her life story as a shop girl and then a malcontent wife- as well as that of her daughter (Mastroianni), whose life choices as an adult are somewhat influenced by her relation with her mother. The film is about the various ways one goes about pursuing love, and the extent to which one is willing to compromise in order to maintain one's ideal of it.. sometimes at the cost of one's liberty and identity.

Hope this helps. I enjoyed the film for the most part though I do find it to be a bit too long.

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Thank you very much!
It sounds interesting. I really like this director.
Thank you again.
Best,
Samuel

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It is about NOTHING. Go and check it, if you have spare time

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I didn't like it either. I had a hard time following it, and then began to wonder if it was worth the trouble. I didn't think the characters behaved in a logical way, they just did what the story required them to do in order to display the writer/director's world view. And oh my god it was long. Lasted weeks and weeks. Long even if you are looking at such beautiful women.

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I would strongly disagree that the characters didn't behave in a logical way. They made extremely unconfortable life choices, usually trying to keep attached to an unhealthy and often not corresponded love, and that's why I think some people think they didn't behave logically.

They really didn't, but it made sense for the characters, as they gave up logic and even self resspect to try to keep attached to anything slightly regarding love from the people they loved. Mastroianni's character specially, made me extremely unconfortable and pissed at her choices, but by the end of her character's journey, however pissed I was I had to acknowledge that it made sense.

I can't argue that it was long, but I liked that, and also liked the almost unfinished aspect of the screenplay and weird story development ( that pissed a lot of people too ).

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It does seem to meander quite a bit. The film is somewhat impressionistic, and portrays the passage of time. Still, the characters are not very clear. It seems the two women who are central to the film are not very clear, while the men are somewhat better delineated and interesting, in my opinion.

I would say worth seeing only if you have some extra time and no other quality films to watch, and/or if you especially like to watch the performances of the stars in the movie.

David Alexander
http://www.planetthoughts.org
http://www.opalcomputing.com

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Perhaps like many US people, I learned early on that the first question not to ask is "what is this French movie really about," because for me it leads only to frustration.

Rather, I ask something like "what does this movie say to me?" Not much better, usually, but in this case what it said after a long two hours or so was that people are all pretty much alike in the end (duh) and each of us has different ways of responding to any situation we find ourselves in.

Because of this, and in spite of my regard for the actors, I really just thought at the end, "why did I bother watching yet another complicated, sometimes nearly insane, movie?"

I say that because after six decades on earth, I'm beginning to realize two things: 1) There is nothing new under the sun, and 2) Of the making of strange, convoluted movies there is no end.

Perhaps a younger person wouldn't say "ho-hum" after seeing it, but that was the bottom line for me. I don't think any of the characters was really revealed very well in spite of a lot of moderately dense conversation. Most of them took paths of least resistence even if they were stupid and even difficult paths. At the end I'm not sure anyone learned anything except that the movie had finished being made and it was time to go home and look for the next movie to be in.

Bah, humbug.

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And what is Milos Forman doing in this misunderstanding? May be it is because of Passer, or the warmth that the film still radiates to some extent? but this is not sufficient. Strange....

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