Les Destinees Sentimentales Details

First-rate saga of French rural life and love

This is a long and moving saga of a film, following the lives of a couple either side of W.W.1.

It starts out in Cognac territory, near Bordeaux, and the in-depth details of the local trade are lovingly outlined, but we also see the stifling mediocrity of small-town culture, which drives them, for separate reasons, away.

The story then shows us their developing relationship, in a span that encompasses the brutality and emptiness of the Great War, showing us how their destinies touch others around them, sometimes to tragic effect. Even the nascent French socialist movement is shown up in painful conflict with industrial development.

This is no Hollywood blockbuster - it's much better than that. The acting is superb; the psychological reality constant, and the director's love-affair with rural France obvious!

This is a film which leaves its mark on you long after it's over, so real do the characters become, and so engrossing the story-line.

Passionate, real, interesting and gripping, this is a goodie!

[Highly rated reviewer]

Loved it

Really enjoyed it, excellent cast