Cannes: Vincent Lacoste, headliner of the romantic and historical film "Le temps d'aimer" with Anaïs Demoustier

Marie Gicquel and AFP// Photo credits: Daniele Cifalà / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP 08:08, May 22, 2023

Two beings, two secrets, united for better and for worse: with "Le temps d'aimer", Katell Quillévéré ("Repairing the living", "Suzanne") presents in Cannes a sumptuous historical-sentimental fresco and asks a question: is it never too late to love?

1947. On a Normandy beach, Madeleine (Anaïs Demoustier), waitress in a hotel-restaurant, mother of a little boy, meets François (Vincent Lacoste), a rich and cultured but mysterious student. Love at first sight is immediate.

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The two unite very quickly. For Madeleine, this union is an opportunity: to forget the horrors of war and especially her Nazi lover, with whom she had a son, Daniel. Shorn and driven from her home, Madeleine is a bruised and wounded woman. For Francis, too, the idea of leaving his past behind is a tantalizing prospect.

"A complex role"

From this shared opportunism, will love be born? The result of several years of work, this film, presented out of competition, is inspired by the life of the director's grandmother, who had a child at 17 with a Wehrmacht soldier.

"It's a story that has remained secret for a very long time," the filmmaker told AFP. When the truth was finally known, I wanted to make this film, which is not totally autobiographical." With great subtlety, he explores the question of maternal love.

"How do you love a child who blames you? How to show the difficulty of loving? It was essential for me not to portray motherhood as a cliché but in all its ambivalence," she says. Then again, will it be time for Madeleine to love Daniel? Will she allow herself to love?

The dramatic tension builds from the first minutes of the film. The images are neat, the rhythm too. The viewer quickly understands that he is facing a perfectly executed romantic fresco (while being realistic) where stories intertwine, without ever colliding.

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The film takes time, without ever being long, skips years to better focus on other periods of life. Its great strength lies in its actors: Anaïs Demoustier and Vincent Lacoste. "I didn't know they were friends in life, which explains a lot of the chemistry between them," says the director.

"It's true that it's a very complex role that I wasn't too used to doing. It's a broad role. It's really romantic, there's a lot going on. I'm starting to be offered a lot of serious films, real intense dramas but I don't want to detach myself from comedy, I love it!"