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Review: I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG / Philippe Claudel (2008)

November 2nd, 2008 by Scott Marks

Elsa Zylberstein and Kristin Scott Thomas

I’ve Loved You So Long (2008)
Written and Directed by Philippe Claudel
Starring: Kristin Scott Thomas, Elsa Zylberstein, Serge Hazanavicius and Laurent Grévill
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Running Time: 115 min.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

WARNING: Read this review only after you’ve seen the movie.

While pondering the significance of the film’s title, one of my favorite Harvey Keitel lines in Mean Streets came to mind: “Well I don’t love you!”

Juliette Fontaine (Kristin Scott Thomas) is paroled after serving a 15 year stretch in the slammer for killing her son. (Already it sounds like a Lifetime Movie of the Weak.) With nowhere to turn, her charitable younger sister, Léa (Elsa Zylberstein), whom she hardly knows, takes pity and offers her a room.

Juliette’s brother-in-law Luc (Serge Hazanavicius) is immediately suspicious, particularly as far as the couples’ two children are concerned. The first night, Luc immediately begins pushing his wife to find the jailbird a new place to roost. Why does he wait until after Juliette arrives to complain about her? If he felt that strongly, he never should have consented in the first place.

Juliette’s re-acclimation is nicely detailed. The only moment in the film that got a rise out of me (other than a background poster for Lubitsch’s To Be or Not to Be) was watching her get reacquainted with fabric other than that of her jailhouse garb. The rest is all suffering, frustration and car rides played out in extreme close-up.

While sitting through this grueling “can ex-cons be accepted back into society?” message picture, all I could see was Oscar. For 105 minutes Ms. Thomas walks around all morose and hollow-eyed only to have  one big explosion scene towards the end. (I could make a crack about Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, but I’ll refrain.) Oscar loves it when beautiful actresses wipe off the Max Factor and play dead.

Shame on Landmark Theatres in San Diego for canceling thier engagement of Wayne Wang’s fine love letter to Yasujiro Ozu A Thousand Years of Good Prayers in favor of this and the inept Leone-via-Tarantino knock off Sukiyaki Western Django. Nothing sickens me more than when an art chain spreads its legs wide for Oscar.

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Filed Under Reviews, Theatrical

Dig A Hole: Charles H. Joffe, Woody Allen’s loyal producer

July 15th, 2008 by Scott Marks

With Woody Allen off playing jazz, Jack Nicholson presents producers Charles H. Joffe (left) and Jack Rollins with their 1977 best pictures Oscar for Annie Hall.

Until today, I never knew what Charles H. Joffe looked like. His business partner Jack Rollins had a bit part in Broadway Danny Rose and frequent (hilarious) cutaways on Late Night with David Letterman, but until I stumbled across this photo on the LA Times website, Mr. Joffe’s face remained a mystery.

His name was anything but.

As with any good Hebrew student/retardate, repetition is the key to learning and I saw Mr. Joffe’s name appear on screen at least a hundred times. And that was just one movie!

That opening weekend screening of Woody Allen’s Take the Money and Run in the big Old Orchard Theatre was oxygen to my 14-year-old brain. It must have been a cheap rental for the film played on the bottom half of double-bills for years to come. No matter what theater, I was there and each one of my hundred-plus viewings came before home video.

Don’t ask how many times I saw Bananas.

More than Diane Keaton or Carlo Di Palma or Mia Farrow or even Jack Rollins, Charles H. Joffe’s name was synonymous with Woody Allen’s. Of the 44 films directed by Allen only four (two shorts, a made for TV feature and Tiger Lily) don’t include Charles H. Joffe’s name in the credits. He also produced two of Allen’s early non-directorial efforts, Play it Again, Sam and The Front.

I am saddened to report that Mr. Joffe died Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after a long illness. He was 78.

Continue reading Dig A Hole: Charles H. Joffe, Woody Allen’s loyal producer

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Filed Under Obituaries

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