I've Loved Kristin Scott Thomas So Long
Sunday, May 8, 2016 at 8:00PM Josh here to celebrate a very particular mother. It’s 'Girls Gone Wild' month at The Film Experience, so it seems appropriate to visit one of the best performances of the last decade with Kristin Scott Thomas in I’ve Loved You So Long. She plays Juliette, a mother who everyone views as a someone who went “wild” once, committing a murder. Despite her cool exterior, everyone is waiting for her to break again at any point. This was writer/directors Philippe Claudel’s directorial debut after an esteemed writing career, and the novelistic approach to his characters pays off well; Juliette's still waters run deep...
These hidden depths justify telling the story on the screen. We can only watch Juliette, and learn to know her, at the same time as the other characters like her sister Lea (played brilliantly by Elsa Zylberstein). Kristin Scott Thomas's fine skills have never been better used than in this performance. She gives the audience just enough to keep them hooked, just a sliver of her emotional state. There’s a prickly harshness to Juliette that makes her past crime plausible but also mysterious. We still want to know why. There’s something simmering within her. Maybe the people around her are justified with their worries in her presence?
It’s hard to think of another actress who could have delivered this morally complex and brooding film so well, while avoiding pitfalls of melodrama that the plot could have easily fallen into. But this is Kristin's wheelhouse. Her best known roles like The English Patient, Nowhere Boy, Sarah’s Key and even Gosford Park, teeter on the edge of morose melodrama but mostly avoid it thanks to well-handled direction and the actress's skill.
The film is a fascinating look at whether a single action can define a person for a lifetime and the complexities of forgiveness. The “wild” may be in her past but it lingers over Juliette like a dark cloud. The film has been criticised for what some have argued as a “cop-out” ending, and it does unravel some of the most interesting existential questions that the film raises, but that doesn’t take away from the brilliance of the central performance.
Can we take this opportunity to make a plea for Kristin Scott Thomas to un-retire from films?
Please? What if we promise not to make her do any more films like Confession of a Shopaholic? Have you also loved Kristin so long?
Reader Comments (12)
She is so good in that film as it's really one of her finest roles.
I experienced my most drastic change of mind about liking or disliking an actor with this woman. When I fiest saw her in The English Patient I hated her performance (and -though it should have not mattered as regards Kristin- I was additionanlly furious that Juliette Binoche "stole" Lauren Bacall's Oscar).
Now I absolutely love Scott-Thomas and feel rather sad that she has announced that she will soon retire. Her films in French are special favorites of mine.
Her retirement is not permanent. Being an actress in midlife the good roles aren't there at the moment. Please tell me you appreciated her in Only God Forgives as well?
Love this movie and performance. Glad Winslet has an Oscar but I would have given her the win for this.
I remember rushing out to buy the DVD years ago just because the movie wasn't shown here in SG....her performance was truly sublime....now it's time to catch up on her French movies.
It is painful to watch her in "Under the Cherry Moon," but she also comes across sort of endearing in it, being thrown into that mess and expected to swim rather than sink.
Saw her twice in West End. Her Electra is one of my favourite theatre performences ever. She signed my programme after the show.
I miss her two. She's got two projects in-development.
Sorry dear. It's DAME Kristin Scott Thomas.
KST is one of the best actresses out there, and I predict a late career renaissance much like Judi Dench will happen for her. She is elegance personified.
I'm going through a bit of withdrawal since Dame Kristin's "retirement" from films. Hopefully, she'll find a role she really wants and grace the big screen again. I agree that her performance in I've Loved You So Long is one of the best in recent memory.
Happy birthday Kristin Scott Thomas!
You are a great actress and enjoyed you on screen in several movies like Four Weddings and a funeral, The English Patient, Mission Impossible, I've Loved So You So Long, Gosford Park, Keeping Mum, Leaving and as Plum Berkeley in AbFab