A very good movie

I already saw this movie but, since it was ages ago, I thought I might as well check it out again. I have to admit that I didn’t remember anything about it and, to be honest, I was wondering if I actually ever saw it before. Anyway, even though I know Claude Sautet is regarded as a major director in France, I’m not familiar at all with his work (I have actually seen only 2 of his movies, including this one) but the guy really blew me away here. I can imagine that, even if I did watch it when I was a teenager, there is no way I could really feel a connection with the damned thing at the time. Basically, it’s a fascinating character study and a mesmerizing love story. Sure, there was actually no ‘consummation’ of this love but it was actually a really bold move and it made the whole thing stands out the countless love stories that you can find out there. Another tricky thing was to make sure that Stéphane (probably one of the best performances by Daniel Auteuil) didn’t become a completely unlikeable sociopath. Sure, there was something off about the guy and many characters in the movie itself expressed that they didn’t like him and he did remain an enigma until the end but the point of the movie was not to make us like him but to show him as he is. The fact that a gorgeous woman like Camille could fall in love with him like this shows his appeal, at least, to some of us. By the way, Emmanuelle Béart never looked more beautiful than in this film and I can imagine that it can be frustrating for some viewers to see a guy dumping her like this, especially after she basically dropped everything just to be with him. That’s the other fascinating thing about this movie, it is actually possible that Stéphane actually did love her, maybe he just loved the tension that there was between them and he didn’t want to ruin it or change this dynamic but we’ll never know for sure. Anyway, to conclude, even if it might seem a little bit forgotten nowadays, I really loved the damned thing and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

8/10