Café de Flore

I'm a sap, I hold my hands up, Something like The American Tail sets me off whenever it's on TV. I found myself nearly wiping my snotty nose on the back of the cinema seat in front of me but was saved by a flash of on-screen comedy (not to give anything away).

I went to watch this today not knowing anything about it apart that it was directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and that it was sold to me as a supernatural/romance story. Great! i'll give it a go... I was glued to my seat after 5 minutes by it's beautiful cinematography/editing and subject matter.

Two stories from different eras. One man, with everything in his life but feels a sense of underlying conflict about his relationship with his ex wife. One woman, caring for her son who has Down's syndrome. The stories are inter-cut (non linear) and unrelated but as we progress we begin to see similarities. You don't want to know the whole story, it really is a hammer to the heart.

You feel emotionally involved with what's unfolding (and a whole lot of stuff unfolds) that will leave you either rushing out to declare your true love to someone or, you'll end up walking on your own through a city with an icy heart (I haven't decided which yet).

There will be themes that you will be familiar with, broken relationships, jealousy, Maternal obligations/ or not. A brilliant cast and script, important subject matter and a 'diluted Lynchian' ending serves this up to be an essential watch.

My advice is don't read too much about the story. Leap of faith ;)

Oh and it features some amazing music... but there's a point to that too.

"If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, it's yours forever. If it doesn't, it wasn't meant to be." – Anonymous

Love is about holding on to someone, but it is also about knowing when to let go. This theme defines Jean-Marc Vallée's Café de flore, his second film since the 2005 hit C.R.A.Z.Y., and one of the most poignant films in recent memory. Not only does Café de flore repeat Vallée's earlier success, but goes far beyond it in its extraordinary ability to capture the intensity of deeply-felt human emotion. The title refers not to the famous Paris café, but to a jazzy song with the same name that serves as a connection between each of the film's two parallel stories. In addition to the title song, music plays a large role in the film as it did in C.R.A.Z.Y. with songs from Pink Floyd, Sigur Rós, and The Cure supporting key points in the narrative.

Unfolding with a non-linear script that includes multiple flashbacks, flash-forwards, and cross-cutting, the stories take place in two time periods over forty years apart. In the present day, Antoine (Kevin Parent) is a well-to-do middle-aged disc jockey who lives in a suburban home with his partner Rose (Evelyne Brochu) and his two daughters from a former marriage (Joanny Corbeil-Picher, Rosalie Fortier). Everything looks wonderful on the surface except that Antoine is visiting a psychiatrist to handle his feelings about what he feels is betrayal of his family. Antoine's first wife Carole (Hélène Florent) is distraught and yearns for reconciliation with the man she has always thought of as her soul mate since they came together as teenagers out of a shared love of music.

Carole is urged by friends to let go of Antoine and move on, but she is obsessed with getting him back, telling her friend, "I've never kissed another man." She takes drugs to help her sleep, sleepwalks in the middle of the night, and has dreams and waking visions of a strange woman in Paris many years ago experiencing a similar pain in her relationship. To help her understand her visions, Carole visits a spiritual adviser who tells her that her dreams are not a coincidence. The parallel story is set in Paris in 1969, Jacqueline (Vanessa Paradis), a single mother cares for her young son Laurent (Lucas Bonin) who was born with Down's syndrome. She was abandoned by her husband after Laurent's birth because he did not want to be a "missionary."

Jacqueline is a devoted mother, showering her son with love, and intending to ensure that he lives past the norm of twenty-five years for a person with his condition. When she enrolls him in a normal school, she constantly protects him from bullies and also from teachers who are not willing or able to deal with him. Jacqueline wants to train Laurent to defend himself by learning how to box but, when he rebels at the idea, she teaches him to strike back through words which he uses to peak efficiency at the right moment.

When Laurent is seven, he develops a close attachment to Veronique, another Down's syndrome child, an attachment that threatens his mother's obsessive protection and leads to an unforeseen turn in their relationship. Café de flore is a passionately performed and spiritually resonant film, one of the best I've seen this year. Reminiscent of Terence Malick's Tree of Life with its voice-overs reflecting the inner thoughts of the characters, it is a haunting experience and the mystical connection between its two stories will keep you in a Donnie Darko-like state of puzzlement long into the night and beyond.

All i can say is that I loved this film. Just saw it last night. it's a challenging, intriguing, mesmerizing, intoxicating look at love through two intertwined, overlapping stories -- set in past and present and both in different time periods -- about a man going through a divorce and the mother of a down's syndrome child. You can't explain it. You have to experience it. And whether you believe in past lives or not (i don't and the director says he doesn't either), you will go on an unsettling emotional journey watching this visually stunning, amazingly acted movie. Vanessa Paradis is heartbreaking and almost unrecognizable. The addictive Cafe de Flore music inspired the director to write, direct and edit this film himself. The score is modern, mind-blowing but also includes some classic rock, including some from Pink Floyd.

Firstly, disregard the two previous reviews, for they are both negative and underrate a great film. 'Cafe de Flore' is not quite for everyone, which I can understand. However if you truly want to see this film, ignore other opinions, otherwise you will miss out on a potential Oscar nomination.

There are two separate stories occurring. One is about a woman in the 1960s (Paradis) who has to raise her son on her own, because he has Down's syndrome. The other is about a music jockey named Antoine (Parent) who is ready to marry again despite the bond he shares with his ex-wife, who was also his first love. His eldest daughter purposely plays certain songs which remind him of their marriage, since the central idea is how music recalls certain memories. Every time a certain song is heard in the background, one is bound to step inside the characters memories.

The other story is the beauty of a mother-son relationship. Paradis is genuine in this role, especially being a real-life mother herself. Her makeup ages her to portray her role well. We see how she encourages her boy to learn despite his disabilities. Remember, this was an era where children like him were discriminated and often sent to institutions.

'Cafe de Flore' is truly a story about the power of love. You have to follow closely, therefore if easily distracted the flashbacks may confuse you. The constant repetition of Pink Floyd, which was also a signature band for Jean-Marc Vallee's 'C.R.A.Z.Y.', is synchronized to perfection. The visuals and acting performances are moving, as the film unfolds by layer, to at last reveal how both stories are connected.

Cafe de Flore proposes two somewhat strange parallel story lines, that of a single mother of a Down's Syndrome boy in 1960's Paris, alongside that of a narcissistic professional DJ living in modern day Montreal, Canada. Throughout the film I expected these two disparate stories to somehow meet in some tangible form, but this part of the film remains a bit of a mystery... perhaps staying in some kind of spiritual realm. That aspect of the film is somewhat confusing, and may be a bit off-putting to many viewers. I thought it a bit strange, but overall I think this is a great film. Even though this parallel story line is pretty bizarre, the filming, especially the Paris scenes, are superb, the acting is great, and the connection between mother and son is incredible. I thought the character of the young Down's syndrome girl could have been fleshed out a bit more, but apart from that its a very watchable film with great music and well crafted performances. Nice work.