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Clara et moi
2004 Drama / Romance
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Credits
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Director: Arnaud Viard
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Script: Arnaud Viard
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Photo: Pierre Cottereau
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Music: Benjamin Biolay, Bertrand Burgalat
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Cast: Julien Boisselier (Antoine),
Julie Gayet (Clara),
Michel Aumont (Le père d'Antoine),
Sacha Bourdo (Alain),
Antoine Duléry (BT),
Pascale Arbillot (Isabelle),
Sophie Mounicot (Géraldine),
Riton Liebman (Didier),
Frédéric Pierrot (Étienne),
Christian Charmetant (L'analyste),
Marianne Viard (Marianne),
Cyril Bedel (Benoît)
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Country: France
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Language: French
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Runtime: 90 min
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Aka: Clara and Me
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Summary
Antoine is 33, a struggling actor living in Paris. Outwardly, he appears happy and
satisfied with his life; inwardly, he is tortured by solitude. One day, he gets
up and decides to find a woman with whom he will start a family. The challenge proves
to be a lot easier than he imagined. In the metro, he makes eye contact with an
attractive young woman, Clara, who gives him her phone number. The two meet up soon
after and they instantly discover they are made for one another. Of course it is
inevitable they will get married and have children and live happily ever after.
But then Clara discovers she is HIV positive. How will Antoine – an idealistic and
self-centred young man – react to the news?
Review
Clara et moi is an engaging French love story,
a film with great sensitivity and charm which marks a very promising directorial debut
for Arnaud Viard. The first and second halves of the film are strikingly different
in tone and emotional impact. The film at first resembles a near-parody of a traditional
French romantic comedy, and even includes a musical sequence that appears to have fallen
out of a Jacques Demy film. Whilst this part of the film is certainly appealing,
it isn’t until the second half when the emotional force of the drama begins to take hold.
Antoine’s reaction to the news that Clara has AIDS is written and performed with great
conviction, and it’s heart breaking to see Antoine struggling to assert his true feelings
for the woman he loves over his instinctive cowardice and ingrained narcissism.
Ultimately, the film is less about romantic love and more about a man painfully discovering
his humanity.
Although the film is shot in Digital Video, it looks stunning, and Viard’s cinematographer
really does succeed in capturing the mood of the drama, subtly underscoring the feelings
and emotions of the principal characters. Above all else, it is the faultless, perfectly
judged performances from the lead actors – Julien Boisselier and Julie Gayet – which most
makes this such a memorable and truthful film. Although it is unashamedly a tear-jerker
of the classic kind, Clara et moi stands apart
as a particularly good example of the genre because it is so refreshingly understated
and so honest in its portrayal of human emotions.
© James Travers 2006
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