La belle personne

France

2008

97 Min

Color

1.85:1

French, Italian, English, Russian

Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
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PROD Sophie Barrat, Florence Dormoy, Joëy Faré

SCR Christophe Honoré, Gilles Taurand, Madame de La Fayette

CAST Léa Seydoux, Louis Garrel, Esteban Carvajal-Alegria, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, Simon Truxillo, Agathe Bonitzer, Anaïs Demoustier, Jean-Michel Portal, Martin Siméon, Valerie Lang, Jacob Lyon, Chantal Neuwirth, Esther Garrel, Dominic Gould, Clotilde Hesme, Jeanne Audiard, Alice Butaud, Tanel Derard, Pierre Glénat, Chantal Hymans, Mathilde Incerti, Candice Zaccagnino, Julien Honoré, Chiara Mastroianni

Following her mother’s death, 16-year-old Junie changes high school mid-year and finds herself in the same class as her cousin Mathias, who introduces her to his friends. All the boys want to date Junie, and she chooses the quietest among them, Otto Clèves. But soon after, she encounters the great love of her life in her Italian teacher, Nemours. The passion that burns between them is doomed. Junie refuses to give in to her feelings and persists in denying herself happiness, which in her eyes is merely illusory. A contemporary adaptation of Madame de La Fayette’s novel, The Princess of Clèves, transferring the action from the court of Henry II to modern day Paris. –San Sebastián Film Festival

Director

Christophe Honoré

After moving to Paris in 1995, he wrote articles in the “Les Cahiers du Cinéma.” He started writing soon-after. His 1996 book Tout contre Léo (Close to Leo) talks about HIV and is aimed at young adults; he made it into a movie in 2002. He wrote other books for young adults throughout the late 1990s. His first play, Les Débutantes, was performed at Avignon’s Off Festival in 1998. In 2005, he returns to Avignon to present his latest creation, Dionysos impuissant, in the “In” Festival; Joana Preiss and Louis Garrel, who has acted in a number of Honoré films, played the leads.

A well-known director, he is considered an “auteur” in French Cinema. His 2006 film “Dans Paris” has led him to be considered by French critics as the heir to the Nouvelle Vague Cinema. In 2007, Les Chansons d’amour was one of the films selected to be in competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.1 Some of his movies or screenplays (like Les filles ne savent pas nager, Dix-sept fois Cécile Cassard and Les… read more

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HKFanatic

10May12

The movie's vision of a perpetually overcast France full of pale-skinned and pouty-lipped Parisian teens may or may not be an accurate reflection of reality, but it's a reality I'd like to escape to. This is a film about love, a subject that is sacred to some and passe to others, but I was mostly just thrilled to see a film that treats young love with the same seriousness and severity as teenagers experience it.