Review of the film “Just You and Me” by Valerie Donzelli

Valerie Donzelli’s drama L’amour et les forets (Just You and Me) was released, which participated in the out-of-competition program of this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The story of love turned into the dark side, sometimes takes on an edifying tone, but can serve as a warning to many viewers, believes Yulia Shagelman.

The picture begins like a fairy tale: by the very blue sea there lived two sisters, Belyanochka and Rosochka, and the only thing they lacked was beautiful princes. However, the twin sisters Blanche and Rose (both played by Virginie Efira) are already past the age when they believe in fairy tales. In addition, Blanche, formally the eldest – for ten minutes, has a broken heart after breaking up with her lover. But her sister persuades her to shake things up and go to a party with mutual friends, where “there is sure to be a suitable man for you.” Blanche doesn’t want to have fun, but she’s the kind of woman who always gives in, so she ends up in a crowd of drunken dancing people with whom she has nothing in common.

Nevertheless, the “suitable man” really is. This is Gregoire (Melville Poupot), whom Blanche knew a long time ago, but he has changed so much that at first she does not even recognize him. But he shows an unequivocal interest in her, and the meeting, to mutual satisfaction, ends in bed. The first date is followed by a second, a third, and now Blanche is completely and irrevocably in love. And how not to fall in love: Gregoire is gentle, caring, sensitive and generally so perfect that you can’t even believe it. Roz really does not trust him and believes that her sister’s romance is developing too quickly, but she replies that she does not want to waste any more time on caution, and her mother (Marie Riviere), who has lived for many years in a happy marriage, supports her.

When Blanche discovers that she is pregnant and begins to doubt whether she should leave the child, Grégoire again confirms his impeccability: he is delighted and immediately proposes. Almost immediately after the wedding, he is transferred to work in Metz, and this means that Blanche will have to part with her own work, her beloved Normandy, her mother and sister. Of course, she is upset, but, as a good wife should be, she follows her husband, full of hopes for a happy new life: on the way, lovers even suddenly break from ordinary conversation to singing, as in the musicals of Jacques Demy. And just like in these musicals, for some reason, disturbing notes are heard in their joyful duet.

At first, everything goes fine in the new place: the couple has a daughter, their days and nights are filled with smiles, hugs and kisses, and their house does not even have internal doors, because they have no secrets from each other. However, some small details spoil this wonderful picture: for example, Gregoire makes a habit of looking over his wife’s shoulder when she writes to her sister, and decides that they will not go to visit her family for Christmas – why do we need other people, it’s so good when there is only you and I.

Gradually, this “just you and me” turns from a romantic declaration into something more reminiscent of a threat. Gregoire is unhappy that Blanche goes back to work, insists that she communicate less with colleagues and immediately rush home, constantly calls her, checking where she is, controls her expenses. Then reproaches and showdowns begin on the smallest occasions. Blanche herself does not notice how a house without doors becomes a stuffy prison, but the thought of escaping does not even occur to her – after all, she and Gregoire already have two children, and her husband really loves her, which she does not get tired of repeating between more and more often. occurring scandals.

“Just You and Me” is a film adaptation of the novel by Eric Reinhardt, which made a sensation in France (in the original, the book and the film are called the same: “Love and Forests”). Valerie Donzelli co-wrote the screenplay with Audrey Diwan, who won the Golden Lion at the 2021 Venice Film Festival for The Event, a film about a girl who is forced to undergo a clandestine abortion. Here the topic is no less complex, painful and relevant – domestic violence. But it is presented not in the format of frank autofiction, but deliberately aloof, with “art” shooting on film and references to Hitchcock thrillers and the classic film about psychological violence in marriage – George Cukor’s “Gaslight”. However, that is why, although the story comes from Blanche’s face, the audience recognizes before her that Gregoire is turning into a family tyrant, and understand where this story of total control leads, taken by both of them for love.