I’ve Loved You So Long

I’ve Loved You So Long (Il y a longtemps que je t’aime) (France, 2008) Two women meet awkwardly in an airport in France. It’s obvious they haven’t seen each other for a long time. Soon we discover they’re sisters, and the older one is going to be living with the younger one and her family for a short time. It’s obvious she’s just gotten out of some sort of institution. Prison, or the looney bin? Prison. She has done fifteen years, for murder. … and that’s about all I can tell you, as the discovery of who she murdered is a real shocker. For the rest of the movie you wonder, how in the world could she have done this and still be a good person? Because she seems good, we want her to be good, but the nature of her crime … it would be impossible to like her unless there is something we don’t know. And there is, of course, and it’s pretty shattering. Bring a handkerchief.

I have learned that Kristen Scott Thomas, who I would have said is about as British as an actress can be, though she is fluent in French and speaks French in this movie … actually thinks of herself as more French than English, as she has lived more of her life in Paris—since she was 19—than in England. Just think of her in Four Weddings and a Funeral, or The English Patient. But she’s made quite a few movies in French. It must be nice to be able to have a career in two countries.