Beloved review

Bittersweet French musical with Catherine Deneuve

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Spanning four decades and multiple locations, Christophe Honoré’s bittersweet musical explores the amorous adventures of Madeleine (played in her youth by Ludivine Sagnier and as an adult by Catherine Deneuve), and her daughter Véra (Chiara Mastroianni, Deneuve’s real-life offspring).

“I don’t believe in happiness, but that doesn’t stop me from being happy,” muses Madeleine as we pass from the free-love era to the age of AIDS.

Alex Beaupain’s songs effectively convey emotion, but Beloved doesn’t scale the heights of the Truffaut and Demy films it pastiches.