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La Belle poque (film)
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Wikipedia article
'La Belle poque' is a 2019 French romantic comedy-drama film that was written and directed by Nicolas Bedos.Allan Hunter, [https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/la-belle-epoque-cannes-review/5139706.article "'La Belle Epoque': Cannes Review"]. 'Screen Daily', 21 May 2019.
The film stars Daniel Auteuil as Victor, a man in his 60s whose long marriage to Marianne (Fanny Ardant) is on the rocks. When Victor meets Antoine (Guillaume Canet), the owner of a company which allows people to perform a version of "time travel" by visiting a stage where the company acts out a staged historical reenactment, he takes the opportunity to revisit the moment when he first met Marianne, in hopes of rekindling his love for her.
The film premiered out of competition at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.
Plot
Victor, an unemployed cartoonist and illustrator, is in his sixties and disillusioned. His marriage to Marianne is in trouble and he is uninterested in, and overwhelmed by, the modern world and what he sees as faddish, technological advances. To cheer him up, his son Maxime buys him a voucher to spend an evening run by a company that stages historical reenactments as a form of "time travel". The company offers its customers an opportunity to relive the era of their choice, mixing theatrical devices and historical reconstruction, and some wealthy clients choose to spend an evening with William Faulkner, Adolf Hitler or aristocrats in the 17th century. Although Victor is at first dismissive, after Marianne tells him she wants to break up with him, Victor reluctantly approaches the company, choosing to revisit the most significant week of his life, in which he first met Marianne, forty years earlier, in 'La Belle poque' caf in Lyon. Antoine, the owner of the company and a former screenwriter, is very fastidious and overbearing but holds an appreciation for Victor from a kindness he did for him as a teenager. Antoine restages Victor's first meeting with Marianne, casting as Marianne the woman with whom Antoine currently has a turbulent affair, Margot. Little by little, Victor becomes lost in the reconstituted memories, and at the same time Antoine and Margot's relationship breaks down. Meanwhile, Marianne comes to regret her decision. Eventually, the two couples are both reconciled over their need to connect to the authentic, rather than the nostalgic.
Cast
* Daniel Auteuil as Victor Drumond
* Guillaume Canet as Antoine
* Doria Tillier as Margot
* Fanny Ardant as Marianne Drumond
* Pierre Arditi as Pierre
* Denis Podalyds as Franois
* Michal Cohen as Maxime Drumond
* Jeanne Arnes as Amlie
* Bertrand Poncet as Adrien
* Bruno Raffaelli as Maurice/Yvon/Hemingway
* Lizzie Brocher as Gisle / Margots friend
* Thomas Scimeca as Freddy/Hans Axel von Fersen
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of based on reviews from critics, with an average rating of . On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 75 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".
Peter Debruge of 'Variety' wrote: "Where so many high-concept romantic comedies squander their one big idea, 'La Belle poque' leverages its own to remind us how and why we fall in love in the first place..." and Debruge praises the writing, saying it has "a script that's as ambitiously imagined as a Charlie Kaufman movie." Todd McCarthy of 'The Hollywood Reporter' gave the film a positive review calling it a "witty, sexy and original romantic comedy that touches many points of satisfaction."
References
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