Dir/Wri: Diane Kruys | Cast: Roschdy Zem, Marina Fois, Thierry de Peretti, Raphaelle Rousseau | France Biopic 118′
This enigmatic little title rather diminishes one of the greatest show-biz love affairs of the 20th century; that between Simone Signoret and Yves Montand.
If you’re expecting a biopic run-through of their respective careers this is not it, although Moi qui t’aimais makes oblique references to the stars’ films, and is enlivened by performances from Roschdy Zem who has a surprisingly mellow voice as Montand, and almost does the French crooner justice. Best known for more gangsterish roles such as Days of Glory this is certainly a turning point for the Cannes award-winning actor Zem. But ultimately Marina Fois is the standout here with her gutsy, soulful portrayal of Simone Signoret.
Set at the zenith of the couple’s success, from 1974 until the early 1980s, this is a compelling character study of a marriage, and a man who couldn’t keep his trousers on. Like a naughty puppy Montand comes back again and again to his world-weary mistress, who welcomes him with open arms – but always with a beady eye for his next misdemeanour. Married since 1951, theirs is a mature relationship that has stood the test of time, and inevitably has its fair share of resentments and disappointments along with the intense joy of enduring love and unconditional acceptance.
Simone Signoret simple adores Montand, and Marina Fois is magnificent in the role, her coal black eyes glowering under a curtain of steely hair. Stern yet vulnerable she plays the German-born actress with great style and presence, melting into tears when her man abandons her only to return with expressions of undying love. Montand comforts her, cherishes her, whisks her off to cosy weekends at the Colombe d’Or in St Paul de Vence, and sends her red roses in congratulations after a critical success. The couple would stay together til death parted them, but not another woman.
Sweepingly romantic and unapologetically traditional in style Moi qui t’aimais, from award-winning writer director Diane Kruys, glows in its Normandy and Parisian settings with music by Philippe Sarde (Les Choses de la Vie), tells a turbulent love story ‘a la francaise’, from the woman’s perspective, and naturally, being French, gives Montand all the excuses in the world for his flagrant behaviour: he’s only a man, after all, and being Italian (by birth) he’s a gentle, incurable romantic into the bargain.
Simone Signoret: cigarette, whisky or red wine her constant companions, is enjoying the final years of her life in a glorious Normandy villa surrounded by parkland, where the table is always spread with a delicious lunch for her close coterie of friends, Serge Reggiani and Claude Sautet, and her daughter Catherine (from her marriage to Yves Allegret). During one of these convivial meals she confides to Nadine Trintignant (Rousseau): “I like having someone who is liked.” But Signoret is also playing with fire; Montand, tall and lithe with charismatic charm, was a cult seducer of women. And Signoret is often seen at the depths of despair, a disillusioned romantic having to share her husband with the younger more simpering Nadine, amongst others.
Diane Kurys occasionally plays fast and loose with the truth. Marina Foïs and Roschdy Zem are staunchly their own characters and resolutely their own stars rather than slavishly following historical detail; we see them preparing in their respective dressing rooms. The director combines her entertaining narrative with actual archive footage. In another scene we see Marina Fois’s Signoret telling her housekeeper Marcelle to throw some glamorous old photos into the fire. Did this really happen? Well according to Fois it did; she clearly wants her Signoret to be relatable for all women of a ‘certain age’, and to embellish Signoret’s understandable feelings of regret. She’s a female star lamenting her former glory. Whether the fire incident actually happened it certainly works well with the storyline. This is a French movie, after all. @MeredithTaylor
MOI QUI T’AIMAIS is ON RELEASE IN FRANCE.