Given that Café de Flore (Alliance Films) is nominated for 13 Genie Awards, you may get the impression it’s a great film. Out of curiosity you may be tempted to rent the newly-released DVD edition. To avoid unnecessary disappointment I suggest you rent something else.
Cafe de Flore is a painfully slow, cinematic mash-up of two seemingly unrelated relationships, both oozing kissy-face love. First there is Antoine (Kevin Parent), a present-day Montrealer and globe-trotting DJ who is torn between deeply-cultivated love for his ex-wife (Hélène Florent) and passionate, lust for his girlfriend (Evelyne Brochu). His story is told alongside that of Jacqueline (Vanessa Paradis), a single mother in 1960s Paris who is totally devoted to her 7-year-old son (Marin Gerrier), raising him in defiance of his Down syndrome handicaps and shortened life expectancy. Viewed against a backdrop of exquisitely shot settings particular to time and place, both relationships reveal the fundamental pain and pleasure inherent in loving another human being.
I get it. Love is a powerful emotion. It can be euphoric, ethereal, tragic and heartbreaking. Difficult to capture, it defines our every intention by its presence or absence. And in a messy collage of character-specific memory, dream and reality, Café de Flore is an abstract expression of how love affects everyone. Taken as a visual patchwork, it’s fine. But as a film, the narrative of Café de Flore is full of holes that otherwise filled with character and story development would make for a more fulfilling cinematic experience.
The problem with Café de Flore is that the filmmakers have introduced compelling characters without enough clues to explain their motivations and connect their stories. While I’m falling in love with Antoine I want to know why he split from his first wife. She is a sympathetic character with struggles of her own. I’m hoping they will get back together instead of being driven further apart by her strange dreams and expectations. And while I cheer for Jacqueline and want to reach out and hug both her and her son, I’m annoyed that I keep getting ripped away from their story in 1960s Paris and back to that of Antoine in present-day Montreal.
The Café de Flore storyline is ambitious and though executed with skill and sensitivity, it tempts audience boredom. Leave your audience wondering about what the heck is going on and why and you miss the all-important opportunity for them to connect with your characters, inhabit the story and experience a deep, emotional response. Don’t make an audience work too hard.
Evoking in me a deep emotion, whether it be love or something contrary, is the most important thing a film can do. I crave it. It’s why I go to the movies. Unfortunately Café de Flore falls short.
After reviewing the Genie Award categories in which Café de Flore is nominated I can’t help but think it is undeservedly shortlisted. The Genie Awards ceremony on March 8, 2012 will prove me either insightful, or a fool.
See you at the movies.
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