Cafe de Flore (2011)

Featured Audience Ratings

• c0up  

  
  'Cafe de Flore'. Love, its dizzying highs and lows, and everything else in between, in this brave, stunning, deeply affecting film. I am still reeling from this thing, three hours later. What starts as two seemingly separate, simple stories about love, takes a very dark,… More
  'Cafe de Flore'. Love, its dizzying highs and lows, and everything else in between, in this brave, stunning, deeply affecting film. I am still reeling from this thing, three hours later. What starts as two seemingly separate, simple stories about love, takes a very dark, spiritual turn, and in the process, explores "love" in its many forms. I say two simple stories in relation to where the story goes, but they aren't simple by any means. It almost feels wrong to call the raw, incredible compassion shown by Jacqueline to her Down Syndrome son, Laurent "acting". Vanessa Paradis is outstanding as a mother who has given all her love and devoted her life to her son, expecting nothing less than the same in return. The introduction of Vero, and Laurent's "I love her like I love you" sets things unravelling. The present day story is equally compelling, and thematically parallel in its telling of Carole, a woman like Jacqueline, who has only ever loved one person, but loses him to another, and cannot move on. They both still reminisce, and the way this whole film is edited, switching effortlessly between tones, stories and timeframes, is rather brilliant! Joyful, motherly love to a lost teen romance to the increasingly dark visions of Carole, that consistently unsettled me. In the short time I've had to process this, I've thought about the ending in a couple of different ways. I didn't know what to make of it at first, then felt the film would have worked just fine without connecting of the two storylines from a narrative perspective, bar Carole's visions. Then I thought about it again, and what Carole's "sorry" to Antoine meant. This is a Carole that has come to terms with the connection, and what she did as Jacqueline to Laurent and Vero. This Carole has finally let go, understanding that love is sadly not 1:1. I'd be amiss not to mention the soundtrack. It's probably my favourite of the year to date. The characters, especially Laurent, and his reincarnate, Antoine, are linked via the track 'Cafe de Flore'. Music means a lot to these two, translating naturally to the importance the soundtrack has to the audience. The experience of being challenged by cinema is one I thoroughly enjoy. This is not easy going, but it's damn rewarding.

• E.J. B

  
  Jean-Marc Vallee is one of Canada's most daring and best filmmakers. In fact, Canada's best films tend to come from Quebec - Incendies, The Barbarian Invasions, Polytechnique, and C.R.A.Z.Y to name a few. And up to a certain point, I was ready to add Vallee's newest… More
  Jean-Marc Vallee is one of Canada's most daring and best filmmakers. In fact, Canada's best films tend to come from Quebec - Incendies, The Barbarian Invasions, Polytechnique, and C.R.A.Z.Y to name a few. And up to a certain point, I was ready to add Vallee's newest film, Cafe de Flore to that list. Unfortunately, somewhere around the film's third act, the film just lost me. A very ambitious picture about very complicated people with a great soundtrack to boot, everything that it had going for it fell apart from a lack of direction, or simply a mash-up of strange, existential ideas that all of a sudden get thrown into the story at random. Following a very discontinuous editing pattern, the narrative follows two parallel stories - one in present day Montreal about a club DJ who has just divorced his high school sweetheart (and mother of his two children), and is now remarrying, the other in 1960s Paris about a mother with a Down syndrome child who struggles to provide that child with the most "normal" upbringing she can manage. The film balances these stories very well, and links them through the film's title, which refers to a song that both main characters love. Traces of Wong Kar Wai's Chungking Express are evident, and the beautifully composed shots juxtaposed with a lounge induced soundtrack make for what is almost a perfect art-house experience. Yet all of a sudden the third act delves into a David Lynch horror picture, bringing up themes of reincarnation, a contrived drug relapse for characters you didn't even know were addicts in the first place (one was an alcoholic, but the drug part comes out of nowhere), the Parisian mother ends up tying her son to a bed to keep him from seeking out the girl he loves, sleepwalking, an annoyingly cliche dream sequence, and a ending that toots some magical clue to unlocking the picture. It just screams pretentious and shocking for the sake of being shocking. This third act completely undermines the film's touching and intriguing previous two thirds. Some people may love this film for its jarring and strange twists. I just kept asking myself, "where is Vallee going with this?" And wherever the hell we ended up, I just didn't care.

• ernest e

  
  Typical canadian attempt at artful expression by mish mash meaningles sick relationships. Sick because there is display of unhealthy psychological damage being done to a child by his mother through the way she mothers him. Adults incapable of being emotionaly free and independant,… More
  Typical canadian attempt at artful expression by mish mash meaningles sick relationships. Sick because there is display of unhealthy psychological damage being done to a child by his mother through the way she mothers him. Adults incapable of being emotionaly free and independant, they are imprisoned in relationships. Unhealthy, rotten versions of pretensious love that does not touch the inner soul. Stil it is fun to watch it all and appreciate its meaningles line that comes from nowhere and ends nowhere. In between a tastefull load of nonsense, is this art? I question that but must admit it was entertaining.

• Linda K

  
  Simply a beautiful love story!