Directed by: Claire Denis
Screenplay Written by: Claire Denis & Christine Angot
Produced by: Olivier Delbosc
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Xavier Beauvois, Philippe Katerine, Josiane Balasko, Sandrine Dumas, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Alex Descas, Laurent Grevill, Bruno Podalydés, Paul Blain, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Gérard Depardieu.
I wrote my thesis on, A Lover’s Discourse – Fragments (Ronald Barthes (1977)), using Hemingway’s writing in, The Garden of Eden (1986), Across the River and into the Trees (1950) and also his short fiction piece, Hills Like White Elephants (1927) as an illustration of Ronald Barthes theory:
That love cannot be expressed through language, that love is expressed through the ‘nothing’ that is not language, that it is the actions and gifts given because of love that signpost to the reader that the characters in the story are in love, or conversely, not in love. Because of the nature of writing love, I have utilized Hemingway’s writing as a basis for Barthes’ theory – it is Hemingway that writes love and it is Barthes that writes of love.
Let the Sunshine In was originally based on the Discourse then evolved into a screenplay written by Claire Denis (also director) & Christine Angot where Isabelle (Juliette Binoche) falls in love, only to have her heart broken, to love again… and again…
Divorced and the mother of a ten-year-old daughter, we only see briefly as a face behind the window of a car pulling away, Isabelle mirroring the outline of her hand on the other side of the glass. The love of her child is not what this film’s about. This is a series of moments as Isabelle opens a dialogue with the men she means to love and all the complications and baggage finding love at an older age brings.
She’s not old; she’s not young.
Isabelle laments to a friend that she feels her love life is behind her. The impossibility of each relationship revealing itself in complicated exchanges, each trying to find a way towards or away from the other.
The camera pans back and forth from the cheating husband who bluntly describes his extraordinary wife he will never leave, to the realisation on Isabelle’s face when she can’t find a way back to the love with this man after his blatant denial – no matter how charming he finds her.
We’ve all been there, the wondering of how much to give, how much to take. For love.
Here, we see the pulling apart of feelings that are there, or not. And the language, the limit of language as the lovers try to get past all the talk to find the physical connection. And then, to keep it.
It’s a complicated film that manages to avoid melodrama, replacing physical expressed emotion with words.
I wonder how much was lost in the translation from French to the English subtitles, yet Barthes’ Discourse is what’s being translated with the depth of meaning still conveyed.
Putting love into words is a difficult conversation.
The expertise and experience of Juliette Binoche shines here. I couldn’t imagine another actress portraying the vulnerability of Isabelle, the willingness to follow the reasoning behind the emotions from the other. A heavy burden but a successful one. Like reading a play because it’s all about the dialogue and the tears and expression and never-ending search for love.
Let the sunshine In isn’t a love story, nor a drama; it’s not sad. It’s a lover’s discourse.