Inspiration with a Foreign Flavor -- A film by Philippe Claudel

When the world around me starts feeling too dull, I can usually raise a few sparks in my brain by engaging in some cross-cultural activity. In an ideal world, I’d have enough dough to hop on a plane and visit a foreign country every few months. However, since impulse travel is out of the question, I do the next best thing and go to a foreign film. Last Saturday I went to see a very moving French film called I’ve Loved You So Long. This was the wrenching story of two sisters reuniting after one of them completes a 15 year prison sentence for murder.

The movie was very touching. The most striking qualities of the film are its emotional honesty and the stripped down nature of the acting. At the beginning of the story, the primary characters aren’t comfortable around each other and each seems to harbor their own volatile secrets. Relationships evolve slowly and revelations surface in very subtle ways.

If a movie with this theme had been made in Hollywood, the actresses would have been dolled up and shimmering. The script would be weak and it would force two photogenic women to overact. The style of Philippe Claudel, however, is much more restrained and avoids the shiny pomposity of American film. When the movie was over, I felt like I’d traveled a great emotional distance in a few hours.

After seeing a film in another language that reflects a different culture, my mind feels enriched, stimulated – like I just took a mini-vacation. But because this was a French film, it also transported me back to memories of my trip to Paris last April. While there I wrote some articles about French food and wine. Here is a link to one of my pieces at Vineyard Stars. Juicier details of the trip will follow.