Café de Flore (2012)

pretentious indie movie ; The film consist of stories. One, set in present-day Montreal, Antoine; a successful club DJ is quite happy with his life ; he has a loving girlfriend(Rose) and 2 children , these children are his with his wife (Carole) of several years;they recently divorced; wife had still some hope that he will come back; some bitterness regarding the divorce but she cant fully hate her because Rose is quite nice. Antoine met the Rose in one of his gig and saw her again in AA meeting and they fell in love. The other story is set in 1960s Paris, Jacqueline a single mother of a child with Down syndrome Laurent. the husband left ( implied) because he cant accept the child. Jacqueline was quite devoted to Laurent and Laurent to her mom. but things changed when Vero came into the picture and Laurent and Vero ( fell in love with each other and don't want to be separated from each other (geez they were 7 y/o). Jacqueline then become so possessive. Laurent, and Véro are killed in a car accident (seemingly on purpose (?), by the driver Jacqueline). Carole keep dreaming about a certain boy (Laurent) in his dream after taking all these medications and a weed before she goes to sleep. she then went to a psychic to clarify her dreams who told her the tragic story of Jacqueline, Vero and Laurent. She was Jacqueline in previous life and Antoine and Rose were Laurent and Vero reincarnated. Because she prevented the love of Vero and Laurent in previous life; she will not a hindrance now and give her blessings to the marriage of Antoine and Rose and they were all happy.What a premise of a movie.

The first story is set in present-day Montreal and centers on a recently divorced father of two girls, Antoine Godin (Kevin Parent), who leads a successful life as a professional DJ. Despite having found true happiness in his relationship with his girlfriend Rose (Evelyne Brochu), he feels a little remorseful for having left his ex-wife Carole (Hélène Florent), for whom he still cares deeply. Antoine understands that she continues struggling to move on with her life, heartbroken. And to make the situation in which they find themselves even more difficult, their eldest daughter persistently plays their nostalgic love song with hopes of reuniting her parents.The second story is set in Paris in 1969 and focuses on Jacqueline (Vanessa Paradis), a self-sufficient, loving single mother who becomes the embodiment of perseverance and selflessness as she promises to devote herself both physically and spiritually to her son Laurent, who has been diagnosed with Down syndrome. She spends every minute of spare time with her beloved young boy with the goal to elongate his limited life expectancy. One day, when Laurent begins to be infatuated by Véronique, a new girl in his class-- who, incidentally, also has Down syndrome-- Jacqueline is struck by an overwhelming feeling as she fears that her inseparable bond with the only person she loves will be be lost with time.Up until the very end of the film, it seems like the only link between both stories is the music the characters listen to (the jazz album "Café de flore" appears in the second story while a certain remix is featured in the first one), but as we progress further into this mystical mystery, we learn that there is something much deeper tying together the characters and their stories of love and loss. Knowing that "Café de flore" would be composed of intertwined stories, I was initially a little reluctant to seeing it and very worried that its structure would collapse within the first few minutes of the film. To my pleasant surprise, this modern approach to storytelling proved to be ultimately rewarding. I believe credit is due to the film editor, who is-- believe it or not-- Jean-Marc Vallée, again. It's nice to hear that he had control of almost every visual aspect of his own work of art. With Vallée's perfectly orchestrated editing, the audience is able to follow the story without ever sensing an abrupt switch between story lines. In the film's entirety, not once did I feel that some scenes were fragmented or disjointed from others. Vallée always progresses deeper into his creation by carefully and seamlessly shifting between narratives just at the right time, creating a smooth, fluid tempo. Briefly, everything flows like a river.

Café de Flore- Catch It (A-) Café de Floreis a beautiful French movie about LOVE. Its rarely you see a movie about Love & Soul Mates these days so Cafe De Flore is completely refreshing in bringing the purity of love. Café de Flore is a love story about people separated by time and place but connected in profound and mysterious ways. Atmospheric, fantastical, tragic and hopeful, the film chronicles the parallel fates of Jacqueline, a young mother with a disabled son in 1960s Paris, and Antoine, a recently divorced, successful DJ in present day Montreal. What binds the two stories together is love - euphoric, obsessive, tragic, youthful, timeless love.Even though the movie runs in Non-Chronological manner still you would appreciate how it amalgamates two stories beautifully. I'm not huge fan of non-chronological movie because it makes you depressive like Burning Man, We Need to Talk about Kevin & Memento off course.Vanessa Paradis gave a brilliant performance, she lived in that moment and her chemistry with the syndrome child is superb. You completely forget that it's not even real. Kevin Parent is mesmerizing and exudes passion. Can't believe that's his first outing as an actor. Evelyne Broche is beautiful & her chemistry with Kevin Parent is amazing. Helene Florent is great along with syndrome kids Marin Gerrier & Alice Dubois.On the whole, Cafe De Flore is a beautiful heartening movie, which will bring you in tears.

This is a really unique film, its very intriguing most of the way through and once more of the story becomes clear it is then also intriguing to see how the story will end.I don't think i've explained that well, its difficult to describe. It's a film for those who enjoy going deeper in terms of thought and emotion, and ultimately seeing the spiritual path in life and how love plays a big role. And Love is not always what we first think.It's a fascinating movie, very well made and acted, and the music and cutting in and out of scenes works very well and serves to deepen the experience and make it more rewarding. It stuck with me, warmed my heart and left me feeling hope and a sense of inner joy.