User Reviews

If you remember the recording by Jonny Ray, from the fifties and cited above, I need say no more but chances are you won't so I will. Off the top of my head I can think of only one reasonably entertaining movie by Clare Denis and that was Vendredi Soir (Friday Night) in which, during a transport strike, motorists are urged via radio to offer lifts to pedestrians; Valerie Lemercier accordingly picks up Vincent Lindon and the two complete strangers wind up in the sack. Sixteen years Denis is at it again albeit Juliette Binoche doesn't stop with one man but is on a mission. Binoche was, of course, the selling point and she doesn't let us down, turning in a virtuoso performance. For reasons best known to Ms. Denis, Gerard Depardieu, now resembling a small house, is wheeled out in the last frame contributing only ennui.One for the pseud set.

I found myself thinking the whole time "Well, just goes to show women always go for the assholes." She's a successful artist, beautiful and smart, and goes for married men and jerks every single time. There's one guy who is single and clearly adores her, but she blows him off every time they bump into each other. I can't even remember how the movie ends. I hated most of her boyfriends. An ex-husband shows up at some point and there is an argument. All in all, nothing really happens, nothing is resolved. At least that i can remember, anyway. I probably just sat through whole movie because I love looking at Juliette Binoche. An utterly forgettable movie.

The best part of this film, in my opinion, is Juliette Binoche's beauty. If someone with a less gorgeous face were in it, I would have found it unwatchable. Starting with the opening scene, in which JB as Isabelle is being boned by a quite unattractive man and is not enjoying it, I found it difficult to watch. The ensuing "relationships" she has with a series of men, are almost as painful to witness. I kept thinking, in addition to having such unique beauty, she is an artist, a mother, and other attributes that would be described as positive, so why is she throwing herself at the mercy of these mostly unavailable and unsuitable men? Is there no available man that's her equal? A big question that arises for many women....

The really odd thing about the film is that by the end, nothing really changes. There is that strange closing scene with Gerard Depardieu playing a psychic, and his basic message to her is "stay open." OK, this is very Zen-like, but for me, a bit too much like reality to watch in a movie.

Despite the overwhelming positive critical response, there were a few critics who took French director Claire Denis to task for Let the Sunshine In, in French "Un beau soleil interior," best translated into English as "a beautiful sun inside." Written with co-writer Christine Angot, "Sunshine" stars the iconic Juliette Binoche as Isabelle, a divorced abstract painter who can best be described as "love-starved."

A few female critics were angry that Denis depicts Isabelle as a woman who defines herself solely through her relationships with men. That wouldn't be so bad if the men depicted were an interesting lot-unfortunately they are not. What's more, Isabelle's back story is gravely lacking-we find out little about her professional life as a painter as well as the nature of her relationship with a 10 year old daughter (whom we meet only very briefly mid-narrative).

Perhaps the most worthless review of Let the Sunshine In is the highest rated on Metacritic (a 100)-by Justin Chang writing in the LA Times who terms "Let the Sunshine In" a "sublime comedy of sexual indecision." He's right about Isabelle's sexual indecisiveness-but where is the comedy?

Clearly Denis treats her beleaguered protagonist with kid gloves-she's really the woman with the "beautiful sun inside." She might be a "glutton for punishment," but in the end it's really the men who are at fault here (and a sad bunch they are indeed!).

Perhaps potentially the most interesting man that Isabelle tries to hook up with is an oily banker whom we meet first (in the opening scene they're having a rather unsatisfactory sexual encounter). The banker's crime is that he wants an intimate relationship but will not give up his relationship with a wife to whom he's been married for many years.

Denis unfortunately is loathe to build any suspense in her inert plot, so our frustrated banker makes a lame attempt at the art of stalking by plying Isabelle with a bouquet of flowers. He's unceremoniously given the boot by our lovesick protagonist and that's the last we hear of him.

The rest of the Isabelle's potential suitors need little more description. They include an actor, Isabelle's ex-husband, a working class schlub and an art curator. Unlike the arrogant banker, their shortcomings amount to a coterie of dating misdemeanors: they're basically all a bland bunch and simply unable to commit.

Finally Isabelle decides to go to a "professional" for advice after so many failed attempts at love. He turns out to be as bad as Isabelle's aforementioned love objects. It's Gerard Depardieu as a "medium," whose generalized "psychic" predictions prove as lame as their source-another abject mediocrity who believes in his own BS.

Like the entire prior narrative, the medium goes on and on as the credits roll. Is Claire also mocking Isabelle for her gullibility? If she is, it's gentle mockery as it's already been established that the men here are the "butt" of the over-extended joke.

Perhaps Denis can be forgiven for her feminist bias and her gentle ribbing of the male sex-but her main shortcoming here is an aesthetic one. Despite a good deal of smart, sophisticated dialogue and Juliette Binoche's performance (infused with verisimilitude), it's Denis' inability to build suspense and present a protagonist with an internal arc that displays a modicum of change.

"Un beau soleil intérieur" or "Let the Sun Shine In" or "Bright Sunshine In" or "Dark Glasses" is a French/Belgian co-production in the French language released this year in 2017 and it is the newest work by experienced writer and director Claire Denis. The film runs for slightly over 90 minutes and this also includes closing credits as they interestingly enough were displayed already during the final scene. But we will get to that later. The heart and soul of the film is French Oscar-winning actress Jukliette Binoche, in her 50s now already, but still pretty stunning. The entire film is basically about encounters she has with men, most of them sexual, except the one guy talking to her at the fish shop, the needy one. But everybody else she somehow ends up in bed with while according to the movie she is looking for real true love. But she is definitely also a bit on the promiscuous side and the ways in which we see how desperate she really is are perhaps not enough to hide that, like the crying scenes or the way in which she talks to the Black fella near the end. But maybe my problem with this movie is also how very unlikable all the protagonists are really. Maybe they are just flawed like everybody else, but is that really justification enough? The one hitting rock-bottom is definitely the married guy we see during this long bar scene, perhaps the least likable film character from 2017. We also see him in the very first scene of the film, a sex scene with Binoche's breasts visible and you could think that she lays her innermost out there and it could have been a good start for a great movie. Too bad it is never a great film. Binoche still looks really good for her age and this may be the only amazing component.

Now I want to say a couple words in detail about the final scene. First of all, the credits did not really take anything away from it for me. The only result is that you obviously won't check for the names, but then again you don't otherwise either do you? Finally having Depardieu and Binoche hand it to each other eventually could have been one of the finest film scenes of the year, but it really is no such thing. It is all about Depardieu here, never about Binoche as she is basically just listening. As we don't see Depardieu before except in this very short random car scene, I was quite surprised about his inclusion. It felt very random and the scene is really all about the actor, never about the characters. Such a shame as I like Depardieu and Binoche really a lot and I so so wanted this to be better. Back to the entire film, there were some audience members who laughed a great deal from start to finish in my viewing, but I personally must say the comedy component here was minimal to me. It felt way more about the relationship drama and the protagonists longing for and lack of romantic happiness in her life. Still quotes and reactions felt extremely unauthentic on many occasions, which is why I must say that the characters' actions and reactions made no sense on more than just a few occasions. And this is a negative deal breaker in my opinion. I would not say that the performers were bad or anything, actually they elevated the material at times even, but they can only be as good as the script they are given. And what they were given here was most of the time the opposite of quietly captivating, namely over-the-top and unrealistic. I quite like Binoche (and Depardieu), but this was a really big downer as a whole. Pretty disappointed here and being one myself I cannot even recommend it to Binoche's fans as they will maybe dislike it as much as I did. It is nowhere near real failure territory, but it's also nowhere near being among the better or even best French films from 2017. A country I love in terms of filmmaking. But this one here is the negative example potentially confirming the rule. Go check it out.

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.

A good French romantic comedy with an easy go. It is a story of a middle aged woman Isabelle, a divorcée who seeks a meaningful love with a spicy intimate relationship. She meets and have short relationships with couple of men but ended up only with illusion. Isabelle is just a woman like any other, who needs love care and sex in a normal manner. But the men she meets with quite different personas are huge mismatches to her love expectations and desires. Juliette Binoche is the centerfold of this movie, taking command of her character Isabelle rendering great stamina to the character. There is no doubt about Binoche's awesome acting talents and beauty and she keeps her legend in the movie by giving a very vibrant intensity to Isabelle's character. She laughs, she cries, she suffers, she daydreams, she's angry, she fights - all these moments are exceptionally portrayed by Binoche like a fish swimming in the water. All men portrayed are skilled actors and have done justice to their characters.

Director Claire Denis does a great job. She coordinates a great screenplay with great acting and editing. She manages the opening sex scene very well in which high intimacy running wild between the couple but something is seriously missing kind of idea successfully transmitted to the audience. Denis uses close up techniques quite successfully, particularly of Isabelle's facial reflections, to display the complexity of her character. Music is appropriate and suits most of the scenes. The balance between the close-up shots with wide angles speaks a lot about a good cinematographer.

My only complaint is about the end scene where Isabelle meets the fortune teller and when he starts a pretty boring 10-15 minutes 'analysis' about her love life and the men she have had affairs with. Total waste of time and his monotonous boring voice kills half of the good mood you acquired since the beginning of the movie. Denis should have left that analysis be done by the audience, on their own way rather than narrated through a dull character.

A good one, as often as we get from the French side of the world.