Beloved
Directed by: Christophe Honoré
With: Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni, Ludivine Sagnier and Louis Garrel.
2012
Beloved is a strange exercise of lightness in with which the distractively tragic end is at odds.
The film begins with a bubbly, kaleidoscopic sequence at Roger Vivier’s in Paris . Over the years – the plot begins in the 1960s and ends in the late 1990s – and across countries – Paris, Prague and London
The result is a complex tableau which seems to decline, in all its scenes, Aragon Henderson
The songs, which punctuate the story, maintain the viewer always at a certain distance from the facts depicted, not allowing him to to dive too deeply into the tragic turn of events. They are also well tuned in with the nonchalance of certain scenes one could only hope were so ‘easy’ and unproblematic in real life. We see, for instance, Vera as a young woman, walking in the room and sitting on the bed where Madeleine, now sixty-something, is naked in bed with Jaromil, as if they were in a living room sipping tea (It is true that Catherine Deneuve – interpreting Madeleine – and Milos Forman – interpreting Jaromil – still form a glamorous pair on screen, but wonders if things would be really so natural in real life…). Later on we see Henderson
The most successful thing in the movie is probably the cast. Apart from the two legendary names of Catherine Deneuve and Milos Forman, Beloved reunites some very well known faces from a younger generation of French actors. The two screen couples form in their characters each other's alter egos. While Ludivine Sagnier and Radivoje Bukvic form a couple driven by coquetry, desire and lively frivolity, Chiara Mastroianni and Louis Garrel personify a duo full of bitter self-irony, who feel it has lost even before trying. Across the plot lapses of time and space this remarkably dynamic group of actors works in perfect synchrony.
The last image of the film brought me back to its beginnings, letting me evaluate the covered distance… it might well be that of Beloved, what will stay in my head for longer, is its songs, and not the story.
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