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Beloved(Les bien-aimés)

✭ ✭ ✭   Read critic reviews

France, United Kingdom, Czech Republic · 2011
2h 19m
Director Christophe Honoré
Starring Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Ludivine Sagnier, Louis Garrel
Genre Drama, Music, Romance

From Paris to London, Madeleine and her daughter Véra flit from one amorous adventure to the next, living for the moment and taking all the opportunities that life offers. But not every love affair is without its consequences and disappointments. As time goes by and gnaws away at one’s deepest feelings, love becomes a harder game to play.

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What are critics saying?

75

The A.V. Club by

Honoré's combination of contemporary romantic hijinks and the stylization inherent in the musical genre aren't juxtaposed ironically: Beloved is a tenderly sincere musical that celebrates love even as it acknowledges the ways in which it can sometimes lead to tragedy.

40

Time Out by David Fear

Even with Gallic neomusical royalty like Catherine Deneuve joining in the fray, the whole endeavor reeks of the filmmaker throwing everything against the wall yet barely making anything stick.

80

Empire by David Hughes

Christophe Honoré goes epic in a tale of interlocking lives that owes a debt to Jacques Demy. It won't be to everyone's taste but it's playful enough to win us over.

75

IndieWire by Eric Kohn

Beloved never really earns its sprawling timeline, eventually getting bogged down with too many developments and overstaying its welcome. For a movie where people intermittently burst into song, the plot is oddly one-note.

25

The Playlist by James Rocchi

Honoré's made better films, and he'll make better films again; the most damning thing you can say about this one isn't that it feels like Honore doing a third-rate imitation of Francois Ozon ("Potiche," "8 Women"), but rather that it often feels like Honoré doing a third-rate imitation of himself.

50

Slant Magazine by Jesse Cataldo

Ultimately crammed at a frustrating juncture between period-piece froth and seriously conceived drama, never tipping its hand toward either.

60

The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw

The movie is at its lightest, most charming and most persuasive in the 60s; as it approaches the present, something inescapably preposterous weighs it down, though Honoré carries it off with some flair.

60

Total Film by Tom Dawson

Alex Beaupain's songs effectively convey emotion, but Beloved doesn't scale the heights of the Truffaut and Demy films it pastiches.

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