Let The Sunshine In review: Juliette Binoche leads the cast of Claire Denis’ latest – a portrait of an artist’s rollercoaster love life.
Let The Sunshine In review by Freda Cooper.
Let The Sunshine In review
Some of us are comfortable with our own company, others are happier when they’re part of a couple. And there are those for whom having somebody in their life is an absolute must: they simply don’t thrive on their own. In the case of Isabelle (Juliette Binoche) in Claire Denis’ Let The Sunshine In, it’s as if she has it tattooed on her forehead.
If only she had better taste in potential partners. She’s out of a long term relationship, one which resulted in a daughter, and now all the men she meets fancy her something rotten. She reciprocates in some instances, in others she doesn’t, regardless of whether they make their feelings obvious to her or not. Essentially, she’s looking for love – real love – and it’s no surprise she has so many admirers: she’s beautiful and, as an artist, has the air of a free spirit. Yet, when she gets into a relationship, she has a terrible habit of going into self-sabotage mode.
The film opens with her making love with the first of her lovers that we meet and you wonder why she bothers with him. He’s married – Isabelle isn’t comfortable with being his bit on the side – but he’s also unpleasant and just using her for sex. She finds herself in a similar situation with the next man, an actor: he’s much nicer, but also married, even though he’s planning to leave his wife. At this stage her world is full of married men, to coin a phrase, and being attractive and sexy clearly isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It continues in the same vein. There’s a brief fling with her ex, then an instant spark with Sylvain (Paul Blain) that turns out to be an attraction of opposites and finally a consultation with a clairvoyant (Gerard Depardieu) who has some serious, meaningful words for her. But not without strings.
Isabelle doesn’t only need to learn how to be on her own, but how to like herself, before she can stand any chance of a fulfilling relationship. And the great thing is that, through director Claire Denis’ perceptive and compassionate eyes, we very much get the female perspective. Better still, there’s a captivating performance from Binoche that garners your sympathy all the way along the line. Yet her impatience with life, never letting events take their course, makes her less easy to like. From the outside, all that male attention looks tempting, but on the inside it’s often meaningless, tedious and hard to handle.
The jarring note comes with her meeting the clairvoyant. The action suddenly switches from Isabelle and her latest potential lover to the interior of a car several streets away and a conversation between another couple. We’ve never seen them before and the move is so unexpected that, for a second, it looks like a section from another film has been dropped in by accident. Except that, once we realise who the man is, it’s apparent he’s as bad at relationships as Isabelle. His final words to her don’t command our attention in the way they should, because Denis takes her cue from Call Me By Your Name, with the credits scrolling down the left hand side of the screen as their conversation continues. But, because we’re watching two people instead of one, the scene becomes an irritating muddle and the credits are simply distracting.
In French, the title is Le Beau Soleil Interior – the beautiful inner sunshine – which more closely reflects the film than the official translation. But it’s still a thoughtful film, one photographed in a soft, delicate light that makes it even more beguiling and with an enchanting performance from Binoche. Does she find the love she’s looking for? You decide.
Let The Sunshine In review by Freda Cooper.
Let The Sunshine In is released in the UK on Friday, 20 April.
