Sprawling, odd and wonderful, Beloved is an epic musical exploring the Nature of Love as only Catherine Deneuve singing through the rain swept streets of Paris can.
While no one could argue Christophe Honoré’s (Love Songs, Dans Paris) romantic credentials, there is something incredibly modern and instinctive to the tumble of tones and genre shifts he leads us through, as we span decades and the myriad encounters of lovers in Paris, Prague, London and New York.
But what at first glance seems whimsical, as we follow a young Madeleine’s (Ludivine Sagnier) quick slip from shoe shop girl to prostitute in the 1960’s, becomes something with a sting in its tale as we come up to modern day and follow the current Madeleine (Deneuve) and the amorous entanglements of her daughter Véra (real-life daughter Chiara Mastroianni). Dealing with the fallout of her mother’s various infidelities – including old flame played by Milos Forman – Véra struggles to feel complete in a landscape where sexuality is bound to death, in the shadow of AIDS. A melodrama closer to soap opera than old fashioned musicals, at turns capricious and gloomy it is a fascinating elegy to femininity and passion.
