I’ve Loved You So Long (Il y a longtemps que je t’aime)

Kristin Scott-Thomas gives the performance of her life as Juliette Fontaine in I’ve Loved You So Long.

Kristin Scott-Thomas in I've Loved You So Long

The title comes from a French folk song that features in the film; the story is written by French novelist, Philippe Claudel, here making his first movie.

Juliette looks as though she’s been run over by a train when we first see her in a deserted airport cafe, smoking cigarette after cigarette as she waits… for someone, something?

A younger, lively-looking woman drives into the airport, and walks, then runs upstairs to meet the first woman. There is an awkward greeting. Not lovers, then? The publicity illustrations of two women swimming together are ambiguous.

The older woman has dark blotches under her eyes and a deathly pallor, perhaps a pallor that comes of too long in isolation? And so it turns out. Juliette has spent 15 years in jail. We find out why, very slowly.

Her sister, Léa (played with huge sensitivity by Elsa Zylberstein) was only a teenager when Juliette was incarcerated. Now Juliette finds herself imprisoned by another pain and secret.

Kristin Scott-Thomas as Juliette in a French Art Museum

At first, Léa and her dictionary-writing husband, Luc (Serge Hazanavicius) are somewhat embarrassed by this new addition to their family unit and Luc, in particular, is nervous.

Juliette’s quiet, awkward responses don’t encourage people to warm up to her. And yet the ‘kindness of strangers’ begins to have an effect. A police captain to whom Juliette reports treats her like a human being.

Léa played with huge sensitivity by Elsa Zylberstein and Kristin Scott-Thomas as Juliette

Luc’s ailing father (Jean-Claude Arnaud)  discovers that Juliette shares a love of the same books; the household’s two adopted daughters take a shine to her, and a close teacher colleague of Léa‘s develops a more than passing interest in her…

The painstaking attention to detail, the tension that builds up as silences beget questions, and the remarkable unfolding of the truth about love and loss builds to great impact.

It’s hard to imagine a story of such complexity being told so simply, and without melodrama in English. But it was very well-translated – seamlessly into English, from the French.

Don’t miss this engrossing and moving drama. Do slip a Kleenex in your pocket before you go; you may need it when you, too, discover the truth.

I’ve Loved You So Long opens at cinemas in the UK on Friday 26th September.