I was not too keen to check this one out because I have an aversion to Vanessa Paradis but all I can say is that I am glad I did see it and will happily see it again and certainly buy the DVD when it becomes available. It is, of course, no secret that the French are past masters of delicate, fragile even, emotional story telling on celluloid and clearly French Canadians are not far behind. It takes a while - say a good two reels - to get its emotional claws into you but once it does ... There are two stories unravelling here some forty years apart; in present day Montreal a successful disc jockey, father of two young daughters, meets a woman he feels is his soul mate and albeit reluctantly divorces his wife. He does not do this lightly - in fact guilt drives him to seek psychiatric help - for he had known his wife since they were children. She in turn has never even kissed another man and is distraught at the break. The eldest daughter is also unhappy at the fragmenting of her life and loses no opportunity to play her parents' 'special' song in an effort to drive her father back into her mother's arms. Meanwhile in Paris Vanessa Paradis gives birth to a son with Down's syndrome in 1969. It is too much for the husband who is all for placing the child in a home specializing in care for such children but when Paradis will not entertain such a notion he abandons both wife and child. Paradis, with little money, becomes a single working mother lavishing love on the child and they become sufficiently close to verge on the unhealthy. At the age of seven the son meets and immediately bonds with a girl who is similarly afflicted. The two become inseparable to the point where Paradis intervenes, clearly unable to face sharing her son's unconditional love. The two stories are obviously linked - or else why show us both - and we switch fluidly between the two in awe of - whilst at the same time basking in - the power of love as manifested in two entirely different forms. The acting by everyone concerned is outstanding as is the writing and directing yet I fear it may fail to find its audience which would be a tragedy.
Review of Café de Flore
