Un beau soleil intérieur (2017) Reviews

• Seems to have a built-in mechanism for self destruction

  howard.schumann2018-07-22

  "You don't have to go looking for love when it's where you come from" - Werner Erhard Isabelle (Juliet Binoche, "Ghost in the Shell"), a divorced fiftyish artist, is attractive, urbane, and highly intelligent but her relationships seem to have a built-in mechanism for self destruction. The men in Isabelle's life offer her little except temporary physical pleasure and are pretty much ciphers (and not very nice ones at that). Loosely based on Roland Barthes' book "A Lover's Discourse: Fragments" with a screenplay by Christine Angot, Claire Denis' sophisticated comedy/drama Let the Sunshine In (Un beau soleil intérieur) is lighter fare than normal for Denis, but it has its probing, self-reflective moments and Juliet Binoche, as usual, is an appealing screen presence. Like many of us, Isabelle wants to find someone who fits her pictures but, as most of us discover sooner or later, life often does not fit our pictures. All of Isabelle's relationships start out to be very promising but eventually the decisions she makes about her partners seem to get in the way of her satisfaction. Whatever she thinks that she is looking for, she does not find it with either banker Vincent (Xavier Beauvois, "Django"), actor (Nicolas Duvauchelle, "Wedding Unplanned"), ex-husband Francois (Laurent Gréville, "A Perfect Man"), or any other potential beau for that matter. The film begins with Isabelle in bed with the married, pretentious Vincent. Things are looking a-ok until she decides that he is taking too long to climax, a fact she decides reflects badly on her. Vincent asks her whether she has had more success with other lovers, but her response is a convincing slap in the face. She is with him when he bullies a bartender but she does not react. The next time he visits her in her apartment, however, she calls him an unrepeatable name, then tells him to leave and not come back. Instead, she hooks up with a young actor (Duvauchelle), also married, though with a better disposition. When she invites him in for a drink, they play endless games about whether he should stay or leave. When he decides to stay, they go through the motions together but by the next morning he concludes that things were better before they had sex and wishes that it had not happened. The next one up is François (Gréville), Isabelle's ex-husband, who is concerned about their ten-year-old daughter after she tells him that her mother cries every night. This is not good news for her to hear and she uses it as a reason to end any chance for reconciliation. There are several more suitors that follow but Isabelle always finds something about them that she dislikes. She meets Sylvain (Paul Blain, "All is Forgiven") at a club who literally carries her away with pleasure as they dance to Etta James' beautiful "At Last." Unfortunately, Fabrice (Bruno Podalydès, "Chocolat"), an art gallery owner, convinces her that Sylvain is wrong for her because he is not a good fit for her circle. This provides cover for her to end yet another relationship, one that had barely even begun. There is not much left for her of course but to go to a clairvoyant (Gerard Depardieu, "You Only Live Once"), but his banter provides little certainty that she will find "the one." There are times in Let the Sunshine In when Isabelle has moments of happiness and optimism, but she can also come across as needy and, at times, almost desperate. Through the magic of Binoche's performance, Isabelle is a sympathetic figure and one that we root for. Her quest, however, has a touch of game playing to it and it seems that, for Isabelle, it may not be whether you win or lose but how you play the game.

• Not for everyone, as you can tell from the other reviews here

  LWong19992018-02-20

  Claire Denis' "Let the Sun Shine In" is an exhausting and overwhelming experience, as is the choreography of romance and life it is set in. In the world of tinder, it's all 1s and 0s, but real life these days is much less binary and less immediately satisfying. You won't find that kind of easy romcom satisfaction in Denis' film. One is buffeted by indecision, imprecision, and inaction while swimming in self doubt and self loathing. Isabelle, our stand-in for the duration, is emotionally exhausting. She asks a lot of her lovers and of the audience. She says "stay with me, stay," and Denis uses Juliette Binoche to maximum seductive affect but it's not an easy journey. Isabelle is, by turns, a strong woman with a lot to offer and who knows what she wants, but also a weak human being filled with doubt. She's a paradox and a contradiction, but she also understands without acknowledging that she will always have opportunities...another opportunity. She is someone who is exploring the boundaries of her self. It's perplexing territory to the men she meets but also to herself. Denis shows us as many facets of Isabelle as we are willing to see, that we can see. I think there's a lot more there than I could see at one sitting. A unique portrait. Her best film since "White Material." I'd love to talk to her about it!

• A jaded but mostly visceral musing on romantic realities

  mtrusk2018-05-16

  I don't think the people giving this a 1/10 went into this with realistic expectations. This is French cinema, it's going to be sad and harsh and difficult and the character likely won't come to a concrete and obvious realization leading to her happiness. This movie does not hold your hand, but it is well worth it for those willing to look deeper into their emotional history to see what it is reaching for. There are some conversations that don't land but a lot do because Juliette Binoche gives a stellar performance. This is the type of character study that most actresses wait their whole life to do, she's a volcano of emotions bubbling under the surface for the whole runtime. Her character is probably a "bad person". She dates several married men, but that does not invalidate her problems. This movie is about the idea that chasing perfection can often lead you down the wrong path in your relationships and lead to a fear of commitment. For anyone who finds it difficult to be swept off your feet and easily believe in the rest of your life with someone, this is the movie for you. If you think the title of the film is a task that is easy to achieve, maybe it isn't.

• Meh I found it very underwhelming for the most part

  Horst_In_Translation2017-12-23

  "Un beau soleil intérieur" or "Let the Sun Shine In" or "Bright Sunshine In" or "Dark Glasses" is a French/Belgian co-production in the French language released this year in 2017 and it is the newest work by experienced writer and director Claire Denis. The film runs for slightly over 90 minutes and this also includes closing credits as they interestingly enough were displayed already during the final scene. But we will get to that later. The heart and soul of the film is French Oscar-winning actress Jukliette Binoche, in her 50s now already, but still pretty stunning. The entire film is basically about encounters she has with men, most of them sexual, except the one guy talking to her at the fish shop, the needy one. But everybody else she somehow ends up in bed with while according to the movie she is looking for real true love. But she is definitely also a bit on the promiscuous side and the ways in which we see how desperate she really is are perhaps not enough to hide that, like the crying scenes or the way in which she talks to the Black fella near the end. But maybe my problem with this movie is also how very unlikable all the protagonists are really. Maybe they are just flawed like everybody else, but is that really justification enough? The one hitting rock-bottom is definitely the married guy we see during this long bar scene, perhaps the least likable film character from 2017. We also see him in the very first scene of the film, a sex scene with Binoche's breasts visible and you could think that she lays her innermost out there and it could have been a good start for a great movie. Too bad it is never a great film. Binoche still looks really good for her age and this may be the only amazing component. Now I want to say a couple words in detail about the final scene. First of all, the credits did not really take anything away from it for me. The only result is that you obviously won't check for the names, but then again you don't otherwise either do you? Finally having Depardieu and Binoche hand it to each other eventually could have been one of the finest film scenes of the year, but it really is no such thing. It is all about Depardieu here, never about Binoche as she is basically just listening. As we don't see Depardieu before except in this very short random car scene, I was quite surprised about his inclusion. It felt very random and the scene is really all about the actor, never about the characters. Such a shame as I like Depardieu and Binoche really a lot and I so so wanted this to be better. Back to the entire film, there were some audience members who laughed a great deal from start to finish in my viewing, but I personally must say the comedy component here was minimal to me. It felt way more about the relationship drama and the protagonists longing for and lack of romantic happiness in her life. Still quotes and reactions felt extremely unauthentic on many occasions, which is why I must say that the characters' actions and reactions made no sense on more than just a few occasions. And this is a negative deal breaker in my opinion. I would not say that the performers were bad or anything, actually they elevated the material at times even, but they can only be as good as the script they are given. And what they were given here was most of the time the opposite of quietly captivating, namely over-the-top and unrealistic. I quite like Binoche (and Depardieu), but this was a really big downer as a whole. Pretty disappointed here and being one myself I cannot even recommend it to Binoche's fans as they will maybe dislike it as much as I did. It is nowhere near real failure territory, but it's also nowhere near being among the better or even best French films from 2017. A country I love in terms of filmmaking. But this one here is the negative example potentially confirming the rule. Go check it out.

• Little suspense or character development in tale of lovesick painter thwarted by coterie of commitment-phobe males

  Turfseer2018-05-15

  Despite the overwhelming positive critical response, there were a few critics who took French director Claire Denis to task for Let the Sunshine In, in French "Un beau soleil interior," best translated into English as "a beautiful sun inside." Written with co-writer Christine Angot, "Sunshine" stars the iconic Juliette Binoche as Isabelle, a divorced abstract painter who can best be described as "love-starved." A few female critics were angry that Denis depicts Isabelle as a woman who defines herself solely through her relationships with men. That wouldn't be so bad if the men depicted were an interesting lot-unfortunately they are not. What's more, Isabelle's back story is gravely lacking-we find out little about her professional life as a painter as well as the nature of her relationship with a 10 year old daughter (whom we meet only very briefly mid-narrative). Perhaps the most worthless review of Let the Sunshine In is the highest rated on Metacritic (a 100)-by Justin Chang writing in the LA Times who terms "Let the Sunshine In" a "sublime comedy of sexual indecision." He's right about Isabelle's sexual indecisiveness-but where is the comedy? Clearly Denis treats her beleaguered protagonist with kid gloves-she's really the woman with the "beautiful sun inside." She might be a "glutton for punishment," but in the end it's really the men who are at fault here (and a sad bunch they are indeed!). Perhaps potentially the most interesting man that Isabelle tries to hook up with is an oily banker whom we meet first (in the opening scene they're having a rather unsatisfactory sexual encounter). The banker's crime is that he wants an intimate relationship but will not give up his relationship with a wife to whom he's been married for many years. Denis unfortunately is loathe to build any suspense in her inert plot, so our frustrated banker makes a lame attempt at the art of stalking by plying Isabelle with a bouquet of flowers. He's unceremoniously given the boot by our lovesick protagonist and that's the last we hear of him. The rest of the Isabelle's potential suitors need little more description. They include an actor, Isabelle's ex-husband, a working class schlub and an art curator. Unlike the arrogant banker, their shortcomings amount to a coterie of dating misdemeanors: they're basically all a bland bunch and simply unable to commit. Finally Isabelle decides to go to a "professional" for advice after so many failed attempts at love. He turns out to be as bad as Isabelle's aforementioned love objects. It's Gerard Depardieu as a "medium," whose generalized "psychic" predictions prove as lame as their source-another abject mediocrity who believes in his own BS. Like the entire prior narrative, the medium goes on and on as the credits roll. Is Claire also mocking Isabelle for her gullibility? If she is, it's gentle mockery as it's already been established that the men here are the "butt" of the over-extended joke. Perhaps Denis can be forgiven for her feminist bias and her gentle ribbing of the male sex-but her main shortcoming here is an aesthetic one. Despite a good deal of smart, sophisticated dialogue and Juliette Binoche's performance (infused with verisimilitude), it's Denis' inability to build suspense and present a protagonist with an internal arc that displays a modicum of change.