Along Came Love

The best and strongest moment of this film is its black and white opening. After the Second World War in France, women who’d had anything to do with the Germans (collaborators, lovers, informers, or workers) were publicly lynched: painted with swastikas, shaved bare, forced to undergo humiliating shame marches. This is how we meet the main character Madeleine, who later tries to start a new life with her young son. Years later, he meets a young rich student named François, who is also trying to make a fresh start and escape from a certain part of his life, which the film gradually reveals. Their bond and love is beautifully and delicately portrayed, but it brings nothing new. Much more interesting for me personally was the line of Madeleine's complicated and cold relationship with her son, which had a lot of potential, and it's a great shame that it wasn't handled more skillfully and in more depth, I think it would have elevated the film and set it apart from the others. The beginning of the film was very gripping and dramatic and I was very intrigued, the rest, on the other hand, was pleasant, well made, well acted, but it left an impression of incompleteness and mediocrity... [Festival de Cannes 2023] (05/29/2023)

Powerful motifs involving the troubled lives of two social outcasts in a bland bit of filmmaking. Scars on the soul deepen mutual tolerance and love, but the past and a higher power always catch up with you. And redemption lies in coming to terms with that. Along Came Love is a dramaturgically functional, well-acted drama with the nice coastal architecture of Normandy, but it’s enough to watch it on television. [Cannes FF] (05/22/2023)