French Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallée explores the effect of music on memory and experience in beautiful and complex psychodrama, Café de Flore. Also editor and screenwriter for the film, Vallée has created a fractured and subjective world view which is confusing at times, but which also tells a moving story by letting a combination of images and music prevail over speech.
In present day Montreal, popular DJ Antoine (Kevin Parent) has left his childhood sweetheart and wife of twenty years Carole (Hélène Florent) and their two daughters to form a new relationship with Rose (Evelyn Brochu). Meanwhile, in 1969 Paris, Jacqueline (Vanessa Paradis) is single-handedly raising her six year-old son Laurent (Martin Gerrier), who has Down Syndrome. Determined not to put him in an institution, she sends him to a non-specialised school; however, trouble starts when he develops a childish crush on a classmate who also suffers from Downs.
Back in the present day, Carole is having trouble dealing with her separation from Antoine; she sleepwalks and has nightmares and hallucinations about a small boy with Down Syndrome. She starts to suspect that some kind of reincarnation has occurred and goes to see a medium in the hope that it will help her understand the true nature of her relationship with Antoine...
Cafe de Flore is released on May 11th. For the rest of the review, head over to Movie Farm...
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