La Belle Époque (2019)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Nicolas Bedos writes and directs this French comedy drama starring Daniel Auteuil and Guillaume Canet. Victor Drumond (Auteuil) is an ageing and jaded middle-class Parisian whose career is in crisis and whose relationship with his wife Marianne (Fanny Ardant) has grown stale. Indebted entrepreneur Antoine (Canet), a theatre writer who creates immersive interactive experiences for his wealthy clients to live out their fantasies, offers Victor the chance to relive the best day of his life, when he met Marianne in a bar in Lyon in 1974. Swept up in the elaborate nostalgia play, Victor falls in love with Margot (Doria Tillier), the actor hired to play his young wife who is also Antoine's girlfriend. - Actors:
- Daniel Auteuil, Guillaume Canet, Doria Tillier, Fanny Ardant, Pierre Arditi, Denis Podalydès, Michaël Cohen, Jeanne Arènes, Bertrand Poncet, Bruno Raffaelli, Lizzie Brocheré, Thomas Scimeca, Christiane Millet, Cédric Zimmerlin, François Vincentelli, Claude Aufaure, Sandrine Moaligou, Pierre Forest, Frédéric Sandeau, Jean-Noël Martin
- Directors:
- Nicolas Bedos
- Producers:
- Ardavan Safaee
- Writers:
- Nicolas Bedos
- Genres:
- Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Countries:
- France
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- Not released
- Run Time:
- 117 minutes
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Reviews (2) of La Belle Époque
Simply sparkling - La Belle Époque review by Alphaville
Nominated for 11 Césars, this is the kind of adventurous, imaginative, witty, romantic French comedy/drama Hollywood could never make. A company uses sets and actors to enable people to re-enact the past. You know you’re in for a ride in the opening few scenes, when a staid 18th-century banquet is interrupted by murderous gun-toting gangsters. You don’t need to know any more. Just get on board and let the plot and multiple characters take you when and where they will. It has heart, it has bite and it positively sparkles with energy.
Entertaining, funny, intelligent film which is like a French 'Truman Show' - La Belle Époque review by PV
Here's something unusual: a modern French film which is both funny, intelligent and entertaining.
A bit like a French 'Truman Show' - but less believable - a film I loved; or 'Synecdoche, New York', a film I hated - this is could be called postmodern, or magic realism even.
However, it is also well-written and acted, and fun - with unexpected twists and turns. It entertains intelligently, despite some silly bits and some self-indulgent romantic naval-gazing.
It will really strike a chord with many 'older' viewers who remember the 1970s or 1980s and think in so many ways life was better, happier and simpler then, back when we were poorer and had no tech or trendy bistros or foreign food and holidays etc.
Some great music too - though one track played (Yes Sir I Can Boogie) is from 1977 and very much disco, not from hippy-ish crusty 1974.
A rare French film I would happily watch again - right now. 4.5 stars rounded down - just.