"I'm not here to be loved": a defiant (or disappointed) declaration to ring in 2010? No; with the holidays over and the house awash in a much-welcomed tranquillity, we stoked the fire, made a pizza then settled in to watch a movie.
Je ne suis là pour être aimé is the title of an excellent French film by director Stéphane Brizé.
Brizé's highly nuanced work spins around communication and the (seeming) lack thereof. We see and feel balance and finesse in all aspects of this film: each detail plays into the theme, with expertly controled performances by each actor, right down to the smallest part. Patrick Chesnais is superb, as is his counterpart Anne Consigny. Cudos for script by Brizé and Juliette Sales and for the original music by composers Eduardo Makaroff and Christoph H. Muller.
The synopsis on the back of the DVD tells us that 50 year old Jean-Claude is tired of just about everything in his life... until he starts to take tango lessons. Sound familiar? Remember Masayuki Suo's 1996 film, Shall We Dansu? and Peter Chelsom's 2004 American rendition of it (Shall We Dance?), with Richard Geer, Susan Sarandon, Jennifer Lopez and Stanley Tucci as leads.
Brizé's Je ne suis pas là pour être aimé is in that vein but ever so much more. If the holidays (or life) have you sighing with fatigue, give this film a watch. In French, with English subtitles. It's cinematic art in top form.
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