{"id":840,"date":"2018-05-05T02:36:31","date_gmt":"2018-05-05T02:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/?p=840"},"modified":"2018-05-05T10:34:45","modified_gmt":"2018-05-05T10:34:45","slug":"let-the-sunshine-in-and-juliette-binoche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/2018\/05\/05\/let-the-sunshine-in-and-juliette-binoche\/","title":{"rendered":"Let the Sunshine and Juliette Binoche in"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to conversations in the ladies’ room of Water Read Theatre,\u00a0<\/a><\/span>this one did not go well with American audience. It was taken for a story of a depressed middle aged woman sleeping around with anyone who would go for it.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Barely sat though that one. Bo-ring.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Talking and taking about nothing.<\/p>\n

\u2014 All the time, I wanted to tell her: calm down and stop already. Ha-ha. You\u2019re done.<\/p>\n

The plot is pretty much what they said: a middle aged woman going around having sex with different men eventually being dumped this way or another. But she keeps going.<\/p>\n

But this is it \u2014 she keeps going. And she is not looking for sex. Bedroom and bedroom conversations are another way people express their egos, and selves, and motivations. This is another angle to look at life. An here it is erotic, not graphic.<\/p>\n

Somehow in American culture, after a certain age, a woman is expected to fold: sagging skin and gray hair are probably major visual factors. Americans go for visual effect, there\u2019s no time, need, or attention span to look beyond the gravity pull.<\/p>\n

It is different in other places. Here\u2019s just one parallel: Meryl Streep<\/a><\/span> and Isabelle Huppert<\/a><\/span>. Two actors of the same magnitude, same generation with equal power, insight, and intelligence. The difference \u2014 the material they are offered to work with.<\/p>\n

Meryl Streep was Florence Foster Jenkins, Kay Graham (The Post), The Witch (Into the Woods), Julia Child, Sister Beauvier (The Doubt). There were Iron Lady, August: Osage County.<\/p>\n

Isabelle Huppert had School of Flesh, The Piano Teacher, Ma M\u00e9re, Private Property, Hidden Love, Villa Amalia, White Material and her latest great one Elle.<\/p>\n

The first one is a comical singer, a powerful publisher, an evil witch, a chef, a clergy member, a prime minister, a matriarch destroyed by substance, who all happen to be female. The other one is a woman, a woman, a woman, who happened to be a business executive, a piano teacher, a mother, a wife, an entrepreneur.<\/p>\n

Sexuality of a middle aged woman in American culture is either absent, or a joke, or a condescending suggestion. It\u2019s part of life in Europe, where people are real: fat, old, bold, gray, with skin folds and pores \u2014 they are alive and desiring and wanting to be desired and not denied that. There\u2019s more beyond visual.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another thing. The grossly mistranslated title of the movie. No. More than that \u2014 English version reverses the idea completely. I do not speak French but I\u2019ve become aware of the English misinterpretations of some French words<\/a><\/span> and titles. The major one \u2014\u00a0“Remembrance of Things Past”<\/a><\/span> which was actually “Search for the Times Lost.” Different, no? The French title of this movie is “Un Beau Soleil Int\u00e9rieur.\u201d<\/a><\/span> With the help of google translate, it was this : \u201cbeau \u2014 beauty,\u201d \u201csoleil \u2014 sunshine,\u201d \u201cint\u00e9rieur \u2014 within.\u201d \u201cLet the Sunshine in.\u201d Really? Maybe \u201cBeautiful Sunshine Within\u2026”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Isabelle, a beautiful, strong, independent, intelligent woman, an artist who has so much to offer is trying to figure out who she is and to find the one. She is a woman in constant doubt about herself \u2014 what can be more interesting?\u00a0She knows what she wants and she won’t compromise \u2014 this is the benefit of middle age. She knows there will always be another chance. She gives a lot and she asks for a lot.<\/p>\n

In her life, there are an obnoxious married banker, torn and self-absorbed actor, unpleasant ex-husband who is the father of her daughter, some unimpressive working class stranger and his competitor, Isabelle’s bohemian skittish friend, and some other man who rejects her point blank\u2026 They all pull away because they feel she takes\u00a0more than anyone of them have to offer. They fold.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In that search, she reaches out to a psychic \u2014 an unexpected appearance of an eccentric Gerard Depardieu, now my compatriot, by the way \u2014 who, after his own break up, is beating around the bush, in a long monologue over credits, trying to show her the way: there\u2019s so much inside you, no one will give you more. The light is within. And she says: Yes, Yes, but that other one?..<\/p>\n

It is one of those movies that cannot be completely understood in one sitting. There\u2019s so much to the experience of middle age.<\/p>\n

Charlotte helped me put my thoughts together.<\/p>\n

There are also Marvel movies to watch coming up soon.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to conversations in the ladies’ room of Water Read Theatre,\u00a0this one did not go well with American audience. It was taken for a story of a depressed middle aged woman sleeping around with anyone who would go for it. \u2014 Barely sat though that …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":873,"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840\/revisions\/873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}