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.
Guillaume Nicloux is a novelist, actor and filmmaker. He founded the theatre company La Troupe, has written several books of crime fiction and directed numerous features including The Nun (2013)—also starring Isabelle Huppert—and The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq (2014). Of the remarkable setting of Valley of Love, Nicloux writes “Death Valley is a trap for truth. It’s your solitary brain, open to everything which evades you.”
Film Details
Language French, English
Year 2015
Runtime 92
Country France
Director Guillaume Nicloux
Producer Sulvie Pialat, Benoit Quainon
Writer Guillaume Nicloux
Editor Guy Lecorne
Cinematographer Christophe Offenstein
Music Charles Ives
Cast Isabelle Huppert, Gérard Depardieu
Print Source Strand Releasing