Valley of Love

Description

It’s been 35 years since Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu starred together in a film, so this funny and touching metaphysical drama is cause for celebration. Here, they play a divorced couple reuniting in California’s Death Valley because their deceased son Michael had made a promise to appear to them there on a specific date. Besides its transcendental setting, which cinematographer Christophe Offenstein employs to shimmering effect, and its tale of mourning, parenthood and aging, Valley of Love has the distinct privilege of its monumental stars. Director Guillaume Nicloux even adds a meta level to the film by having their characters be well-known actors named Isabelle and Gérard, leading to a number of humorous in-jokes for devotees of French cinema. But it’s their palpable compassion for one another, even as estranged, grieving parents, that carries the film—Depardieu, with his immense wall of flesh, transcends his recent off-screen notoriety with a performance of grace and depth while Huppert, with her unique combination of fragility and flint, beautifully shows the longing one mother feels to have one last moment with her son.

Film Details