At indieWIRE, Erica Abeel interviews filmmaker/painter/playwright Philippe Claudel, whose feature-film debut, Il y a longtemps que je t'aime / I've Loved You So Long, stars Kristin Scott Thomas as a woman just released from prison after serving a fifteen-year sentence for murder. She is taken in by her younger sister (Elsa Zylberstein), while attempting to return to civilian life.
"An example of the French tradition of high-quality adult melodrama," wrote Kenneth Turan about I've Loved You So Long in the Los Angeles Times, "conventional in technique but not story, this thoughtful, provocative film is slow developing because it's all about character, about the tricky, fragile relationships that make us human; about, if you really want to get down to it, the reclamation of a soul."
Earlier this year, I've Loved You So Long won the Ecumenical Prize at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival, while Kristin Scott Thomas has been mentioned as a potential contender for the 2009 Oscar.
Also in the I've Loved You So Long cast: Serge Hazanavicius, Laurent Grévill, Frédéric Pierrot, and Claire Johnston.
I've Loved You So Long is playing in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Royal in West L.A. and at the Laemmle Town Center 5 in Encino.
Below is a brief snippet from Abeel's lengthy interview with Claudel, which is well worth reading.
iW: Are you concerned that your film's dark subject will turn viewers off here? After all, people go to the movies seeking escape…
PC: It's the same in France. It's the comedies and thrillers that are successful. People love horror, but in thrillers. Once you speak of pain and suffering it's a different matter. But I didn't think about that. I think about the sincerity of my writing. I try to be true, to pose questions. Shake people up a bit and make them look in a direction they wouldn't normally. The surprise is that the film has been a great success in France and other countries where it's come out. Which proves that people respond to a film tackling grave subjects that question and go against the prevailing mood.
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