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Did you people see the same film I saw?

Better Late Then Never

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Catching up on what is happening in the UK General Election,I started to talk to friends on Twitter about their views on events. During the chats,a friend told me that the BBC were about to show a Audrey Tautou that he has been interested in seeing for ages. Charmed by Tautou in He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not,I got set to meet Thérèse Desqueyroux.The plot:Living life as a free spirit in late 1920's France, Thérèse Laroque begins moving away from her open nature,to instead keep with tradition and get together with Bernard Desqueyroux for a marriage of convenience. Originally hoping that the marriage would clear a path that would allow the life goals to be seen, Thérèse finds herself stuck in a loveless marriage,which burns Thérèse's life away.View on the film:Creating a final work whilst dying from cancer,co-writer (with Natalie Carter) director Claude Miller & cinematographer Gérard de Battista give the Costume Drama a funeral atmosphere,lit in dour yellow lights that beam on the stark face of Desqueyroux. Sketching the misery of Desqueyroux's life,Miller digs into the period with elegant charcoal browns and blacks covering any light coming into Desqueyroux. Removing her distinctive kooky smile, Audrey Tautou gives a marvellous performance as Desqueyroux,with Tautou pulling Miller's Desqueyroux down to a burning ember.

There are strong echoes of Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina in Claude Miller's film 'Therese Desqueyroux', derived from a 1920s novel about a woman trapped by convention in a stultifying marriage to a mediocre man. But where Emma Bovary is stupid, Therese is deeply intelligent; whereas Emma has an affair, Therese merely learns of that of her sister in law; and whereas Emma kills herself, Therese tries to murder her husband. In modern parlance, Therese is medically depressed; but while depression may lead to irrational behaviour, it is not itself necessarily without cause. In all these stories, one can feel ambiguous sympathy for the entitled husbands, who may not be likable per se, but who don't fully deserve the hand that fate deals them. There's a nice scene at the end of this film which neatly summarises Monsiuer Desqueyroux's utter emotional constipation. I also liked the way that the time and place (the Landes forest in south west France) are portrayed, and Audtey Tatou is very good in a role which is the opposite of cute.

I found this movie on Netflix streaming movies. It is in French with English subtitles. I speak a bit of French, but man generic French is so quick that I could barely understand what they were saying, so the subtitles are important.I became a big Audrey Tautou fan when I saw "Amelie" the first time. Since then I have seen a total of six of her movies, she is always good, as she is here.It is set in the 1920s France, Audrey Tautou is Thérèse Larroque, in a family that owns some property laden with pine forests. This becomes a significant fact during the movie, as she gets married to a man who also owns land with pine forests and together their pine forest wealth will be great. But it also becomes a threat when, during a period of drought, a forest fire threatens their holdings. Almost as a ritual rather than a love affair Thérèse marries an older man, fine actor Gilles Lellouche as Bernard Desqueyroux. He is a nice man, reasonably handsome, loves his hunting, and sees Thérèse mostly as a way to have a family. And hopefully a son to carry on the family name. But there never was any passion in their relationship.The movie, as titled, is about Thérèse, her unhappiness and feeling trapped in the marriage. Her husband has some symptoms which require medication, and he is prescribed some sort of arsenic drops, only three a day with water. But soon Thérèse sees this as an opportunity, maybe a few more drops each day will do the trick. Of course he gets ill but recovers, her ruse is exposed and she even has to defend herself in court, with the cooperation of her husband. But their relationship, whatever there was of it, is badly damaged. Thérèse has a daughter, the baby is virtually taken away from her by family members, and seems to be growing up without even realizing Thérèse is her mother. Thérèse seems only mildly upset by that development, if at all. Seems maybe she wasn't cut out to be a wife or a mother!In the very last scene, in the city as Bernard tells her goodbye (pronouncing her name 'tezz') then we see her walking among all the people in the street, a wry smile on her face. Was she thinking, "All-in-all that worked out pretty well. Now I can start my life." An excellent character study, Tautou is great.

French screenwriter, producer and director Claude Miller's fifteenth and final feature film which he co-wrote with French screenwriter Natalie Carter, is an adaptation of a novel from 1927 by French author and playwright François Mauriac (1895-1970) and a remake of a French film from 1962 by French filmmaker Georges Franju (1912-1987). It premiered Out of competition at the 65th Cannes International Film Festival in 2012, was screened in the Special Presentations section at the 37th Toronto International Film Festival in 2012, was shot on locations in France and is a French production which was produced by producer Yves Marmion. It tells the story about a woman named Thérèse Desqueyroux who lives in a Provencal village in France with her father and her grandmother. Thérèse has a close and sister-like relationship with a girl named Anne de la Trave who lives in a mansion with her mother and brother named Bernard who is a hunter and a landowner, but after Thérèse marries Bernard and her friend meets a man named Jean Azevedo they don't get to see each other as much as before and Thérèse begins to regard her marriage as conventional and as a prison of duties where she no longer recognizes herself.Distinctly and brilliantly directed by French filmmaker Claude Miller (1942-2012), this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated by the main character and mostly from her point of view, draws a mindful and tangible portrayal of a cultured French woman who after choosing to become a wife and realizing what it entails is so plagued by her decision and bored by her Catholic husband that she commits a crucial act. While notable for its naturalistic and atmospheric milieu depictions, sterling cinematography by French cinematographer Gérard De Battista, production design by production designer Laurence Brenguier, costume design by French costume designer Jacqueline Bouchard and use of sound and light, this dialog-driven, monologue-driven and narrative-driven story about an independent-minded woman who discovers her true identity after becoming a someone in a bourgeoisie society depicts a multifaceted study of character and contains an efficient instrumental score.This internally dramatic, non-judgmental, rhythmic, reflective and romantic drama which is set in Argelouse in the Landes department in Southwestern France during the 1920s in the aftermath of the First World War and where a young woman falls in love with a Jewish man whom her family prevents her from seeing as they have a man from another family named Deguihelm in mind for her, and her closest friend whom has married her brother is suffocating in her matrimony, is impelled and reinforced by its fragmented narrative structure, substantial character development, subtle continuity, timely use of music, undertones of mystery and the distinguished acting performances by French actress Audrey Tautou, French actor, screenwriter and director Gilles Lellouche and French actress Anaïs Demoustier. A cinematographic, nuanced, eloquent and lyrical period piece which honors the art of storytelling in cinema.