Ms. Dayan is to be commended for breathing even often-painful life into a relationship that was largely sealed off from the world outside.
Cet Amour-La (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:22
Fresh:12
Rotten:10
Average Rating:5.6/10
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Synopsis: Marguerite Duras, the Indochina-born French author whose books were adapted into plays and films--Alain Resnais' HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR (1958) and Jean-Jacques Annaud's THE LOVER (1991)--is played by... Marguerite Duras, the Indochina-born French author whose books were adapted into plays and films--Alain Resnais' HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR (1958) and Jean-Jacques Annaud's THE LOVER (1991)--is played by Jeanne Moreau in CET AMOUR-LA, a biographical look at the last 15 years in the life of this historical figure. Told from the point of view of Yann Andrea Steiner (Aymeric Demarigny), the young man who was her lover, assistant, and companion for those final years, CET AMOUR-LA is a calmly fascinating tale. In the role of Duras, the great Moreau commands a powerful presence. She is quick-witted and dreamy, disciplined and sometimes cruel, egotistic and easily hurt, at once indestructible and too fragile. Her words are poetry, as any Duras reader knows. And they are the charms that win the heart and soul of young Yann, who, after wooing her for five years with love letters, finally meets her in person and never again leaves her side. This is where CET AMOUR-LA begins. Duras is happy to have Yann in her life. But she also guards her obvious superiority to him, both in age and intelligence, and uses it whimsically to her advantage. Yann savors each of her words and each moment spent with her, following her with puppy love and protecting her to the very end. A sweet story, directed by Josee Dayan and produced by Alain Sarde, this captivating film illuminates the final chapter in the life of an unforgettable author. [More]
Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Aymeric Demarigny, Christiane Rorato, Sophie Mileron
Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Aymeric Demarigny, Christiane Rorato, Sophie Mileron, Justine Levy, Adrien Guilbert, Tanya Lopert
Director: Josée Dayan
Director: Josée Dayan
Screenwriter: Josée Dayan
Producer: Alain Sarde
Studio: New Yorker Films
Reviews for Cet Amour-La
Moreau brings to the role the sophistication, creative passion and weary wariness only a fellow great artist could evoke with such effortless conviction.
The famously difficult Duras comes off as a grumpy but lovable eccentric, a sort of Auntie Mame with bad moods, who encourages the puppyish Yann to find his own voice and follow his dream.
Moreau presents a magnificently ravaged lioness in winter, feisty as all hell, with occasional tenderness peeking through like rays through storm clouds.
[Moreau] now in her mid-70s, takes charge of her scenes with an iron-fisted authority that refuses to acknowledge the inert movie around her.
Dayan's film gives little sense of what Moreau called a 'scandalous passion', but does provide a dynamic showcase for a marvelous actress.
Cet Amour-Là founders on the difficulty that faces all movies about artists -- how to contextualize the work into the life without putting the audience to sleep.
Like its subject, Cet Amour-La has a knack for making you focus on the beauty beneath the imperfections.
Moreau ... who knew Duras quite well and starred in no fewer than four films based on the writer's work, perfectly embodies her friend, and is thoroughly magnificent.
I think we’re supposed to feel sad when Duras dies at the end, but I was just glad this incredibly boring movie finally ended.
Dayan never makes the love story accessible to us, never makes us understand what there is between this couple.
Dayan's film is a bizarrely attenuated experience, neglecting dramatic substance and context ... in favor of swooning hagiography.
It's a tender, sympathetic film from a gifted writer-director, Algerian-born Josee Dayan, who obviously adores Moreau, Duras and literature.
A film that revels in the insights of Duras' writing and the wisdom of Ms. Moreau's ripe experience as an actress -- a perfectly observed hommage to two extraordinary women of distinction, alone but never lonely.
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