Howard Schumann
"You don't have to go looking for love when it's where you come from" - Werner Erhard
Isabelle (Juliet Binoche, "Ghost in the Shell"), a divorced fiftyish artist, is attractive, urbane, and highly intelligent but her relationships seem to have a built-in mechanism for self destruction. The men in Isabelle's life offer her little except temporary physical pleasure and are pretty much ciphers (and not very nice ones at that). Loosely based on Roland Barthes' book "A Lover's Discourse: Fragments" with a screenplay by Christine Angot, Claire Denis' sophisticated comedy/drama Let the Sunshine In (Un beau soleil intérieur) is lighter fare than normal for Denis, but it has its probing, self-reflective moments and Juliet Binoche, as usual, is an appealing screen presence. Like many of us, Isabelle wants to find someone who fits her pictures but, as most of us discover sooner or later, life often does not fit our pictures. All of Isabelle's relationships start out to be very promising but eventually the decisions she makes about her partners seem to get in the way of her satisfaction. Whatever she thinks that she is looking for, she does not find it with either banker Vincent (Xavier Beauvois, "Django"), actor (Nicolas Duvauchelle, "Wedding Unplanned"), ex-husband Francois (Laurent Gréville, "A Perfect Man"), or any other potential beau for that matter. The film begins with Isabelle in bed with the married, pretentious Vincent. Things are looking a-ok until she decides that he is taking too long to climax, a fact she decides reflects badly on her. Vincent asks her whether she has had more success with other lovers, but her response is a convincing slap in the face. She is with him when he bullies a bartender but she does not react. The next time he visits her in her apartment, however, she calls him an unrepeatable name, then tells him to leave and not come back. Instead, she hooks up with a young actor (Duvauchelle), also married, though with a better disposition. When she invites him in for a drink, they play endless games about whether he should stay or leave. When he decides to stay, they go through the motions together but by the next morning he concludes that things were better before they had sex and wishes that it had not happened.The next one up is François (Gréville), Isabelle's ex-husband, who is concerned about their ten-year-old daughter after she tells him that her mother cries every night. This is not good news for her to hear and she uses it as a reason to end any chance for reconciliation. There are several more suitors that follow but Isabelle always finds something about them that she dislikes. She meets Sylvain (Paul Blain, "All is Forgiven") at a club who literally carries her away with pleasure as they dance to Etta James' beautiful "At Last." Unfortunately, Fabrice (Bruno Podalydès, "Chocolat"), an art gallery owner, convinces her that Sylvain is wrong for her because he is not a good fit for her circle. This provides cover for her to end yet another relationship, one that had barely even begun.
There is not much left for her of course but to go to a clairvoyant (Gerard Depardieu, "You Only Live Once"), but his banter provides little certainty that she will find "the one." There are times in Let the Sunshine In when Isabelle has moments of happiness and optimism, but she can also come across as needy and, at times, almost desperate. Through the magic of Binoche's performance, Isabelle is a sympathetic figure and one that we root for. Her quest, however, has a touch of game playing to it and it seems that, for Isabelle, it may not be whether you win or lose but how you play the game.
janushouse
This felt like torture. I will say that the acting was believable. But, I had not one moment of caring or compassion for any of the characters, Binoche included. I can't get these minutes of my life back, but I can save others the time wasted. What an incredibly irritating, vapid, meaningless film. I'm going to sleep it off and hope I feel better in the morning. Blech.
LWong1999
Claire Denis' "Let the Sun Shine In" is an exhausting and overwhelming experience, as is the choreography of romance and life it is set in. In the world of tinder, it's all 1s and 0s, but real life these days is much less binary and less immediately satisfying. You won't find that kind of easy romcom satisfaction in Denis' film. One is buffeted by indecision, imprecision, and inaction while swimming in self doubt and self loathing. Isabelle, our stand-in for the duration, is emotionally exhausting. She asks a lot of her lovers and of the audience. She says "stay with me, stay," and Denis uses Juliette Binoche to maximum seductive affect but it's not an easy journey. Isabelle is, by turns, a strong woman with a lot to offer and who knows what she wants, but also a weak human being filled with doubt. She's a paradox and a contradiction, but she also understands without acknowledging that she will always have opportunities...another opportunity. She is someone who is exploring the boundaries of her self. It's perplexing territory to the men she meets but also to herself. Denis shows us as many facets of Isabelle as we are willing to see, that we can see. I think there's a lot more there than I could see at one sitting. A unique portrait. Her best film since "White Material." I'd love to talk to her about it!
Mary
I must confess I didn't make it through the movie and this is something that rarely happens to me. It was so meaningless and boring that I felt like it was kicking the will to live out of me. The main character completely lacks a sense of self respect. I wondered why the movie is promoted as a woman's search for love when all she's doing (at least during the first half of the movie) is having sex with married men, some of whom she doesn't even like. She doesn't really communicate with anyone and there is no real exchange with any of the people in her life. The characters talk but they really say nothing to each other, they just think incoherent thoughts out loud. I felt so drained I just had to stop watching, I wasn't even curious to see what happens in the end.
