Beloved DVD & Download

Starring Catherine Deneuve and (her real-life daughter) Chiara Mastroianni, this sly and exquisitely romantic musical drama from Christophe Honoré (Love Songs, Dans Paris) spans over three decades as it follows a mother and daughter's misadventures in love. In the ‘60s, Madeleine (Ludivine Sagnier) leaves Paris to re-join her Czech husband Jaromil (Rasha Bukvic) in Prague, but his infidelities and the arrival of Russian tanks in the city lead her back to France.

Thirty years later we follow the romance of Madeleine’s daughter, Vera, who falls in love with a musician (Paul Scneider) in London who is incapable of devoting himself to her. Meanwhile in Paris, a re-married Madeleine (Deneuve) has rekindled her love affair with Jaromil (Milos Forman). Louis Garrel and Paul Schneider also star in this light-hearted but ultimately moving exploration of the changing nature of relationships, with music by Alex Beaupain (Love Songs).

An elegy to femininity and passion with musical outbursts.

Christophe Honoré is a French writer and film director born in Carhaix, Finistère in 1970.

After moving to Paris in 1995, he wrote articles in Les Cahiers du Cinéma. His 1996 book Tout contre Léo (Close to Leo) talks about HIV and is aimed at young adults; he made it into a movie in 2002. He wrote other books for young adults throughout the late 1990s. His first play, Les Débutantes, was performed at Avignon's Off Festival in 1998. He has since pursued a career as both a theatre and film director.

Filmography

2002 17 Fois Cécile Cassard (Seventeen Times Cécile Cassard)

2004 Ma Mère (My Mother)

2006 Dans Paris (In Paris)

2007 Les Chansons d'amour (Love Songs)

2008 La Belle personne (The Beautiful Person)

2009 Non ma fille tu n'iras pas danser

2010 Homme au bain (Man at Bath)

2011 Les Bien-aimés (Beloved)

“This latest offering from France’s Christophe Honoré is a complex… compelling musical melodrama, beautifully shot to convey an atmosphere of love and the despair that love can bring.”

“Catherine Deneuve provides am impeccable performance (would we expect any less?) as the melancholy matriarch, while Chiara Mastroianni, Paul Schneider and Miloš Forman, round out the ensemble very nicely indeed.”

“Honoré has done a striking job of critically exploring modern ideas of love… as well as engaging contemporary political events and issues.”

“Captivating… a tremendously joyous experience.”3

Joseph Walsh, LITTLE WHITE LIES

“One of the most atttarctive international casts in a French movie in years...

EXQUISITELY ROMANTIC...Performed with relish by A STAR-STUDDED CAST

There is pleasure in hearing the terrific actors lay open their hearts through the downbeat music and lyrics, and, by the time Deneuve strolls through the Paris streets in her Vivier pumps, singing through tears and revisiting her reckless youth, Honoré achieves a lovely evocation of the star in Cherbourg, mourning the loss of l’homme de sa vie."

Mike Goodridge, Screen International

'Beloved is [Honoré’s] most beautiful film...A MIRACLE OF CINEMA'

Gérard Lefort, Libération

'Christophe Honoré always gives you a little bit of l'amour fou to take home with you'

Stephanie Zacharek, Movieline

French Culture Guide

Read an interview with Christophe Honoré conducted during the Cannes Film Festival

Read Cannes 2011 Q+A - The Hollywood Reporter talks to Christophe Honoré

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