Il y a Longtemps que Je T'aime (I've Loved You So Long) (2008)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Daniel P

  
  Kristin Scott Thomas puts this film on her back and carries it with her astounding performance as a long lost sister, returning to her family after incarceration for a crime that, sorry, I can't tell you before you watch the movie. The story keeps you watching based on one… More
  Kristin Scott Thomas puts this film on her back and carries it with her astounding performance as a long lost sister, returning to her family after incarceration for a crime that, sorry, I can't tell you before you watch the movie. The story keeps you watching based on one question: why? Everything you see, you don't know why it's happening, but as the story moves forward, you get new information that keeps you looking backward, assembling the events yourself. It's kind of like you're a member of the family as well, having little breakthroughs along the way. Some reviewers have called this manipulative, but I would say it's quite the opposite, a good story well told. It's an honest and original film that should not be missed.

• Saskia D

  
  A quiet drama. After 15 years in prison, Juliette Fontaine comes back into the community. She has to reconnect with her sister, the world and more important; herself. One look in those empty sad eyes and you can't help but feel deeply moved; what happened to this woman, what is… More
  A quiet drama. After 15 years in prison, Juliette Fontaine comes back into the community. She has to reconnect with her sister, the world and more important; herself. One look in those empty sad eyes and you can't help but feel deeply moved; what happened to this woman, what is her story? Kristin Scott Thomas was amazing.

• danny d

  
  a powerful film with wonderful performances, a masterful screenplay, and near perfect direction by claudel. the final scene is absolutely masterful, evoking wonder at the beauty of creation as well as sympathy for the struggles of the characters at a level rarely achieved in film.… More
  a powerful film with wonderful performances, a masterful screenplay, and near perfect direction by claudel. the final scene is absolutely masterful, evoking wonder at the beauty of creation as well as sympathy for the struggles of the characters at a level rarely achieved in film. the themes in the film seem executed perfectly, and the subject matter unique enough that ive never seen a film quite like it. a great film.

• Randy T

  
  After 15 years in prison, Juliette is trying to put the pieces of her life back together. <i>Il y a Longtemps que Je T'aime</i> is less about redemption than it is about empathy and understanding. A stirring portrayal of parents and children and sacrifice.

• William D

  
  Philippe Claudel's debut film, "I've Loved You So Long," could have been great, but it's saturated with a bourgeois, PBS-type tone that drains most of the drama away. The story also has a tendentious, journalistic quality, being more a vehicle to raise… More
  Philippe Claudel's debut film, "I've Loved You So Long," could have been great, but it's saturated with a bourgeois, PBS-type tone that drains most of the drama away. The story also has a tendentious, journalistic quality, being more a vehicle to raise questions about social issues than tell stories about actual people. It's too pat. When we meet the main character, played a bit too flatly and morosely by Kristin Scott Thomas, she is reconnecting with her sister. Little by little, startling details about her are revealed, such as that she was just recently released from prison. I cannot discuss any more of the story without revealing the plot surprises, so I'll just say that the big question hanging in the air throughout the film is how good people can do horrific things. Then some surprises at the tail end raise even more topical social issues. By the end, I felt like I was reading a feature story in the New York Times instead of watching a film.

• Alice S

  
  Kristin Scott Thomas is so utterly withdrawn and melancholic. She should've been nominated for an Oscar at least. I watched this film in segments on Netflix, so I can't quite tell if the script is good at withholding exposition or just emotionally manipulative. The… More
  Kristin Scott Thomas is so utterly withdrawn and melancholic. She should've been nominated for an Oscar at least. I watched this film in segments on Netflix, so I can't quite tell if the script is good at withholding exposition or just emotionally manipulative. The children and the grandfather are darling. I was hoping for a less redemptive ending though.

• Leigh R

  
  Saw the truth coming from a mile away but it was a really good movie. Very well acted and beautifully directed.

• Brian D

  
  A Smart and original movie with a powerful performance for Ms Thomas. She seems to be an even better actress now that she?s making movies in France. It?s a slow burning movie about a woman just released from prison after 15 years for killing her son but there is a mystery around the… More
  A Smart and original movie with a powerful performance for Ms Thomas. She seems to be an even better actress now that she?s making movies in France. It?s a slow burning movie about a woman just released from prison after 15 years for killing her son but there is a mystery around the reason why, she moves in with her sister and brother in law and daughters. It?s the ongoing struggle and coping with here new life and the re-attachment with her sister which is such an interesting watch. Not a movie for everyone but if you life stories about real people set in a real world then maybe this is a movie for you.

• Lorenzo v

  
  <i>"The worst prison is the death of one's child. You never get out of it."</i> A woman struggles to interact with her family and find her place in society after spending fifteen years in prison. <center><font size=+2 face="Century… More
  <i>"The worst prison is the death of one's child. You never get out of it."</i> A woman struggles to interact with her family and find her place in society after spending fifteen years in prison. <center><font size=+2 face="Century Schoolbook"><b><u>REVIEW</u></b></font></center> A well written and exceptionally well performed tale that explores the depths of acceptance. Kristin Scott Thomas plays Juliette, a woman returning to society after a fifteen year spell in jail. Mostly met with hostility, she is embraced by her sister Lea (Elsa Zylberstein) and treated with caution by her sister's husband and curious daughter (Lise Segur in an amazing performance). The film focuses on emotional details and provides us with a realistic cross-section of humanity. Reaction to Juliette is experienced via a variety of characters. Director Philipe Claudel makes intelligent choices in terms of what is revealed about Juliette; his style is an unobtrusive one that gives the performers plenty of room to move. Zylberstein and Thomas are great together, convincing us of their history and their private pain. The film doesn't wrap anything up for convenience; it reminds us that life is always gray. It is engaging cinema.

• jay n

  
  Extraordinary performance by Kristin Scott Thomas in this deeply felt, very sad character study.

• Gordon A

  
  Taught, believable study of a woman's struggle to reintegrate into society and her family after a tragedy which saw her jailed for 15 years. Thomas and Zylberstein work well together as estranged sisters. Slow but beautifully crafted.

• Rubia Carolina .

  
  Before comment anything about or even before get a concise opinion about Il y a longtemps que je t´aime, I had to watch Rachel Getting Married because two or more people here compared these two films. Both are pretty good, but out of comparison. There´re two women leaving an… More
  Before comment anything about or even before get a concise opinion about Il y a longtemps que je t´aime, I had to watch Rachel Getting Married because two or more people here compared these two films. Both are pretty good, but out of comparison. There´re two women leaving an institution, ok, but for different reasons, with different time of confiniment, different ages, different lives, etc. Both films are very realistic and both protagonists make an amazing work , but I tend to think that Kristin Scott Thomas interpratation is stronger than Anne Hathaway´s. About the film itself, there´s only one thing I don´t get it: why hasn´t Juliete told the truth before? Why did she let her parents and sister suffer like that? A selfish and stupid decision or a lack of (the script) knowing what to do with the character´s story"? <br> <br>

• Dean M

  
  Amazing French family drama about redemption and loss. Director Philippe Claudel offers up a realistic and meaningful movie that reminds us about the importance of family and companionship. The pace is often slow, and the film is peppered with inert minor characters, but it is… More
  Amazing French family drama about redemption and loss. Director Philippe Claudel offers up a realistic and meaningful movie that reminds us about the importance of family and companionship. The pace is often slow, and the film is peppered with inert minor characters, but it is definitely worthwhile. Even cynics will feel a tug at their heart-strings when Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) reads a bedtime story to her niece, or when her Alzheimer's-stricken mother embraces her in a moment of jubilant remembrance. And brace yourself for a teary finale that does justice to the abilities of Scott Thomas and Elsa Zylberstein.

• Drew S

  
  Last week I watched this fantastic little film called Rachel Getting Married. Surely you've heard of it? Though its strengths are many and admirable, perhaps its greatest gift is the ability to be subtle without drawing attention to its quietude or deliberation. It is subtle, but… More
  Last week I watched this fantastic little film called Rachel Getting Married. Surely you've heard of it? Though its strengths are many and admirable, perhaps its greatest gift is the ability to be subtle without drawing attention to its quietude or deliberation. It is subtle, but also forceful, and the movie benefits hugely from that. I've Loved You So Long does not. It would bill itself as subtle, but the aesthetic choices are sold out by the movie's constant need to draw attention to them. "There's piano on this soundtrack! And guitars sometimes too!" "Look at how sad Kristin Scott Thomas is! You can tell because she's not wearing any makeup." (As if the actress's face wasn't enough to communicate that? It's almost an insult.) "If we communicate our plot really slowly, then it'll achieve a slow-burn effect!" The latter here is perhaps the most maddening. Phillipe Claudel's unwillingness to play his cards may read like a painful story slowly unraveling, but what it really is is the need to spread out 45 minutes worth of plot through a two hour movie. I've Loved You So Long had the capacity to be subtle, but it is too untrusting of its audience's intelligence or its ability to read into subtext. It is just as obvious as any other melodrama, only with a thick scoop of false hush dolloped in. And that just makes the movie feel ponderous, languorous, even enervated. This is a shame, because I've Loved You So Long had two overwhelming advantages that become squandered in the laziness of its narrative. The first, obviously, is Kristin Scott Thomas's dynamic performance. She is facially expressive to a fault and in perfect control of what she's communicating to the audience; every move she makes, every subtle twitch, have a meaning behind them. She is a haunted beauty (needlessly highlighted by the overdone makeup) and even before the film begins you can tell she's got a few stories whirling around in her. It's a shame that Elsa Zylberstein's performance lags so far behind hers - which, to be fair, is no fault of her own since Lea is a terribly written character. Claudel seems unsure of what to do with her; especially hilarious is a scene where she has a complete breakdown at a Dostoyevsky debate and makes this odd assertion that none of us can really understand murder since we don't all have murderers in our family. Huh? The second advantage here is the fundamental value of the plot. A mother killing her son - that's all you have to say, and immediately it conjures intrigue. How? Why? Who could be so inhumane? I've Loved You So Long keeps you guessing for an excruciating 100 minutes before finally revealing itself, and the ending is nothing but a shitty copout. It deletes the challenges it poses to the audience, redeems Juliette and Elsa, and whitewashes the whole affair. Worst of all, it leaves you with this palpable "who cares?" sensation. The movie is trivialized, and that is a shame, since the gravity of its core theme should be anything but trivialized. This is a massive disappointment after all the positive buzz, and really amounts to nothing but a smoke-riddled, deceitful waste of time. You can lump it into the La Vie En Rose school of "fantastic performances trapped inside shitty movies" category, or you may well disagree; most seem to. Either way, I can't recommend this in good conscience. It seems ready-made to satisfy the art crowd's need for constant overbearing subtlety.

• Aaron N

  
  Juliette and Lea: At the clear fountain / While I was strolling by / I found the water so nice / That I went in to bathe. So long I've been loving you / I will never forget you. A well acted drama, set in France, about a women coming back into the world and dealing with the… More
  Juliette and Lea: At the clear fountain / While I was strolling by / I found the water so nice / That I went in to bathe. So long I've been loving you / I will never forget you. A well acted drama, set in France, about a women coming back into the world and dealing with the choices she made years prior. Kristin Scott Thomas stars as Juliette, a women who has just been released from a 15 year prison sentence. Juliette has given the chance to live with her sister Lea and her family, which includes her husband, two adopted daughters, and mute father. We slowly learn why Juliette was in prison. As we do, we follow Juliette's limited path in finding work and forming new relationships. Juliette very much likes to keep her emotions on the inside. None of the people close to her ever question why she has done what she did. There are only two key relationships that Juliette forms, not including her own sister. One is her parole officer, the other is a colleague of her sisters'. These aspects only further move Juliette along as she adjusts to her freedom. This movie is quite good. Kristin Scott Thomas has a lot to do with a role that doesn't have a whole lot of dialog to work with, but instead a lot of physical acting involving her facial expressions. The other performances certainly add to the film as well. The movie certainly takes a few moments to make sure an emphasize the important points and does have numerous depressing aspects, but the story is still very engaging. Juliette: Nothing mattered anymore. I wanted to go to prison. Either way, I was guilty. I'd given birth to him and condemned him to die. And I had nothing to say. Explain? Explain what? To whom? Explaining is looking for excuses. Death has no excuses. The worst prison is the death of one's child. You never get out of it.

• Lanning :

  
  First the good news: Kristin Scott Thomas gives a superior performance. Sadly, that's about all I can say in a positive vein. <p>Coming at this project from a writing point of view, I'd have to say that this is one of the most manipulative scripts I've seen in… More
  First the good news: Kristin Scott Thomas gives a superior performance. Sadly, that's about all I can say in a positive vein. <p>Coming at this project from a writing point of view, I'd have to say that this is one of the most manipulative scripts I've seen in recent memory. Please don't misunderstand me; I am absolutely moved by the idea of a story of a mother who kills her child as an act of love, of ultimate mercy. But there are ways to write this in an honest, a genuine spirit, and then there are the tools of melodrama run wild. The basic story is a powerful one, but it's written by folks who do not write true-to-life -- they write clever. If it weren't for Scott Thomas grounding the gimmicky writing, this could be the worst kind of soap opera. <p> I'm no fan of a lot of the philosophy behind Western medicine but, about all I can say, with the cynical nature old age brings upon even some of the best of us, is that this an appropriate example of why physicians are not supposed to treat their own family members. They are too close, emotionally speaking, to act impartially. <p> Kristin Scott Thomas fans should not miss this, however. She definitely rises above the material with a wonderful performance.

• Julie B

  
  A beautiful, heartbreaking performance by Kristin Scott Thomas with great support by all the other actors. Lots of layers. Bring your hankie.

• Robert C

  
  An (ultimately) very moving and solid character drama. Kristin Scott Thomas gives a powerfully subtle performance as Juliette. A woman who has "shut down" emotionally in an attempt to get through her (15 year) prison sentence and the traumatic events that lead her to… More
  An (ultimately) very moving and solid character drama. Kristin Scott Thomas gives a powerfully subtle performance as Juliette. A woman who has "shut down" emotionally in an attempt to get through her (15 year) prison sentence and the traumatic events that lead her to it. Sadly the support of her estranged (and remarkably kind) sister only seem to make things more complicated for Juliette. While the "big reveal" at the end wasn't a total surprise to me...it was well acted and all in all made for a solid completion to the story, without tying it all up in a pretty bow.

• Ross C

  
  A very bleak drama that takes a lot of patience as the history of Juliette is slowly revealed, but is worth the wait in the end.

• Mark A

  
  Incredibly well done film. This viewer was riveted by the strength of the performance by Kristen Scott Thomas as Juliette, a woman who has spent the last fifteen years in prison for the murder of her six year-old son. She is reunited with her younger sister and her family and we get… More
  Incredibly well done film. This viewer was riveted by the strength of the performance by Kristen Scott Thomas as Juliette, a woman who has spent the last fifteen years in prison for the murder of her six year-old son. She is reunited with her younger sister and her family and we get to follow her emotional journey as she attempts to reintegrate into society at large. This felt real. Nothing contrived, nothing false, just an honest to goodness look at what would drive a compassionate woman, a doctor, to do something so horrible and how one would deal with the hurt and anger and guilt afterward. The supporting cast is terrific, especially Elsa Zylberstein as the younger sister, Lea. The lighting and some of the camera work was striking. In the extras, the director mentions going for the look found in the paintings of Edward Hopper, and he certainly achieved it. A beautiful film, beautifully told, and a Oscar worthy performance by Krisitn Scott Thomas.

Read all 20 featured audience ratings