I've Loved You So Long (Il y a longtemps que je t'aime)

Scott Thomas plays Juliette, a woman who is reunited after fifteen years with her ​​younger sister Léa (Elsa Zylberstein) and her family, her husband, two adopted daughters and a silent father who is addicted to books.

Those years of absence were due to the older sister been imprisoned for murder, so that the distance between the two was marked by isolation, denial and secrecy.

Thus, the film is set in what could be called the "drama of reunion", to highlight the difficulty of recognizing in the other the person that left. <the film levarages on Kristin Scott Thomas's soberness, with the idea that a pose or a silence may tell us more than long dialogues, which anyways will never be able to give an idea of the issues faced both by one being locked up and by those who stayed outside, with the terrible task of continuing their life.

The opening sequence sets the tone: Juliette is sitting in an airport cafe, smoking a cigarette, while looking through a window. You can see her little makeup, her clothes that show it has been fifteen years since she left the world. It all suggests the ambiguity determined by the constant question of whether it is worth it to get back. In contrast, her sister runs with vitality through the park, in a purely worldly desire not to be late; a sensation which is transmitted to us through a hand-held camera that pursues her at her own pace.

The meeting takes place in the cafeteria, where the camera is static and the presence of Scott Thomas is striking: it suggested the end of the anxiety and external agitation. Because what does it matter waiting a few hours or so when it has been more than a decade? what rush deserves your attention when within you the waters are in constant turmoil?

From the first moment Juliette is the riddle to decipher. With subtlety, the director is letting us see what her story is. To do this, the director surrounds the main character with small everyday event,s which are the edges and limits that will mark her outline.

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Amid this atmosphere, Scott Thomas takes advantage of her angular body and gives herself the luxury of expressing the psychological complexities of the character through her face, which she can dominate to the point of perfection: she achieves to portray the exact gestures for pain, frustration, barely accepted happiness and profound gratitude.

In short, the actress manages to make of the story and of her character one unit, which is why the film flows with the naturalness of any life event.

In this sense, once met Juliette and Léa at their appointment at the airport, the viewer is presented with this strange gift of really intense fiction. In all this, there is the reason of the awards won by this movie, the Jury Award at the International Film Festival of Berlin and the European Film Award for best actress.

Director: Philippe Claudel

Writer: Philippe Claudel

Stars: Kristin Scott Thomas, Elsa Zylberstein and Serge Hazanavicius