Let the Sunshine In

I don't recall any other time when I related with a protagonist in a film this much. Every aspect of the lead character, Isabelle was portraying me ...some much so that I felt 'naked' emotionally. Claire Denis is a living legend. Juliette Binoche is an amazing actress...definitely a performance worthy of an Oscar

"You don't have to go looking for love when it's where you come from" - Werner Erhard

Isabelle (Juliet Binoche, "Ghost in the Shell"), a divorced fiftyish artist, is attractive, urbane, and highly intelligent but her relationships seem to have a built-in mechanism for self destruction. The men in Isabelle's life offer her little except temporary physical pleasure and are pretty much ciphers (and not very nice ones at that). Loosely based on Roland Barthes' book "A Lover's Discourse: Fragments" with a screenplay by Christine Angot, Claire Denis' sophisticated comedy/drama Let the Sunshine In (Un beau soleil intérieur) is lighter fare than normal for Denis, but it has its probing, self-reflective moments and Juliet Binoche, as usual, is an appealing screen presence.

Like many of us, Isabelle wants to find someone who fits her pictures but, as most of us discover sooner or later, life often does not fit our pictures. All of Isabelle's relationships start out to be very promising but eventually the decisions she makes about her partners seem to get in the way of her satisfaction. Whatever she thinks that she is looking for, she does not find it with either banker Vincent (Xavier Beauvois, "Django"), actor (Nicolas Duvauchelle, "Wedding Unplanned"), ex-husband Francois (Laurent Gréville, "A Perfect Man"), or any other potential beau for that matter. The film begins with Isabelle in bed with the married, pretentious Vincent. Things are looking a-ok until she decides that he is taking too long to climax, a fact she decides reflects badly on her.

Vincent asks her whether she has had more success with other lovers, but her response is a convincing slap in the face. She is with him when he bullies a bartender but she does not react. The next time he visits her in her apartment, however, she calls him an unrepeatable name, then tells him to leave and not come back. Instead, she hooks up with a young actor (Duvauchelle), also married, though with a better disposition. When she invites him in for a drink, they play endless games about whether he should stay or leave. When he decides to stay, they go through the motions together but by the next morning he concludes that things were better before they had sex and wishes that it had not happened.

The next one up is François (Gréville), Isabelle's ex-husband, who is concerned about their ten-year-old daughter after she tells him that her mother cries every night. This is not good news for her to hear and she uses it as a reason to end any chance for reconciliation. There are several more suitors that follow but Isabelle always finds something about them that she dislikes. She meets Sylvain (Paul Blain, "All is Forgiven") at a club who literally carries her away with pleasure as they dance to Etta James' beautiful "At Last." Unfortunately, Fabrice (Bruno Podalydès, "Chocolat"), an art gallery owner, convinces her that Sylvain is wrong for her because he is not a good fit for her circle. This provides cover for her to end yet another relationship, one that had barely even begun. There is not much left for her of course but to go to a clairvoyant (Gerard Depardieu, "You Only Live Once"), but his banter provides little certainty that she will find "the one." There are times in Let the Sunshine In when Isabelle has moments of happiness and optimism, but she can also come across as needy and, at times, almost desperate. Through the magic of Binoche's performance, Isabelle is a sympathetic figure and one that we root for. Her quest, however, has a touch of game playing to it and it seems that, for Isabelle, it may not be whether you win or lose but how you play the game.

"Let the Sunshine In" (2017 release from France; 94 min.; original title "Un beau soleil intérieur") brings the story of Isabelle. As the movie opens, we see Isabelle, naked, and making love to a guy we later learn is married (but not to Isabelle). Isabelle is enjoying a week of relative freedom as her 10 yr. old daughter is away at her dad's, Isabelle's former husband Francois. Soon we learn that Isabelle is deeply unhappy and restless about where she is in her life, and her love life in particular. At this point we're 10 min. into the movie but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from French writer-director Claire Denis. Here she gets to work with one of France's treasures, actress Juliette Binoche. Binoche carries this movie on her shoulders from start to finish, and along the way exposes herself in ways I can't recall before. And it has to be said: Binoche is not in her mid-50s but she looks at least 10 years younger. The movie is what one could generalize as being a "typical French talkie", in which there is a lot, a LOT, of conversation and not much else. The director had the great sense of letting scenes play out, for minutes on, without interruption, as if we are simply a fly on the wall listening in on strangers talking. And yet, for all that closeness, I couldn't find myself all that emotionally invested in the movie or these characters. Yes, one feels that Binoche is delivering a towering performance but so what? Last but not least, Gerard Depardieu makes an appearance at the very end of the movie, as a fortune teller of some sort.

""Let the Sunshine In" premiered at last year's Cannes film festival, to positive acclaim (mostly for Juliette Binoche's performance). Almost exactly a year later, this movie finally showed up at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati. The Saturday matinee performance where I saw this at was not attended well (4 people, including myself), I honestly can't see this playing in the theater very long. If you are interested in "French talkies" or a character study of a woman struggling with various relationships (think "An Unmarried Woman" or "Starting Over"), I'd suggest you check this out, be it in the theater, on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

I don't think the people giving this a 1/10 went into this with realistic expectations. This is French cinema, it's going to be sad and harsh and difficult and the character likely won't come to a concrete and obvious realization leading to her happiness. This movie does not hold your hand, but it is well worth it for those willing to look deeper into their emotional history to see what it is reaching for. There are some conversations that don't land but a lot do because Juliette Binoche gives a stellar performance. This is the type of character study that most actresses wait their whole life to do, she's a volcano of emotions bubbling under the surface for the whole runtime. Her character is probably a "bad person". She dates several married men, but that does not invalidate her problems. This movie is about the idea that chasing perfection can often lead you down the wrong path in your relationships and lead to a fear of commitment. For anyone who finds it difficult to be swept off your feet and easily believe in the rest of your life with someone, this is the movie for you. If you think the title of the film is a task that is easy to achieve, maybe it isn't.

Good actors with great casting, Paris as the backdrop, but the story is a complete dud. This was a total disaster as far as the writing, a failure both in the story as well as the insipid dialogue.

Being, more or less, in the age bracket of Benoche and her character, I find it a bit ridiculous that she stagnates in an adolescent passive-aggressive attitude with men. Say what you mean and mean what you say, someone once said. If you want someone, at this age you can't waste a lot of time being coy or clever.

Just what she saw in the banker is beyond my ability to read what women want. Physically unattractive, arrogant and abusive with the bartender, and dismissive of her feelings point to the fact that what? She's with him for his money?

I'm not saying that people my age can't find "true love" but I think we have to be rational adults while looking for it. The scene in the car and then in her apartment were both so incredibly awkward, worse than anything I suffered in my teens. Grow up! I hated both of those scenes. Thoroughly unromantic.

And then they manage to somehow shoe-horn in a dialogue with Gerard Depardieu?

I was forced to watch the film with inadequate English subtitles that didn't begin to translate the true sense of the French original dialogue, but my French isn't quite good enough to watch it without subtitles. I can never find French films with French subtitles which is the perfect combination for me. People learning English as a second language never have a problem finding English subtitles for English films and TV shows, so stop being so smug about the fact that you speak English.