ahalida132 Review of Café de Flore

Café de Flore (2011)

One of the very best Canadian films I've seen!

[7/10 · 8 December 2017]

This film was recommended to me by my classmate which made me very eager to watch. Firstly I need to stay how big fan I'm of Canadian cinema, especially of the mastercraft work that creates Denis Villeneuve and Xavier Dolan. These two personalities are my greatest idols. "Café de Flore" is truly a story about the power of love. There are two kinds of love in this movie: love between a man and a woman and love of a mother to her son. I particularly liked the storyline about the mother and her son. She had to raise her son on her own because of his Down's syndrome. She encourages her son to learn everything despite the fact that kids with a Down's syndrome were discriminated in that era and often sent to Institutions (their story takes place in 1967). There was this particular line of a man saying "Do you believe in soul mate? That there's somebody made for you. If it's a soul mate, it's not supposed to end, that it's not supposed to happen twice" even though he leaves his wife for another woman. I liked this scene because I figured with this line director wanted to address the audience. The flashbacks in the film may confuse you, therefore you have to follow closely and pay attention to every detail. That's why I think this movie is not for everyone. Music plays an integral part in this movie as it describes the depth of the scenes. Music is used beautifully as the characters are being progressed. But I have to disagree with what the lead character had to say – that a man understands music more than a woman does. Women are great at contemplating modern music and even more know great deal about it. This film carries a strong message: that all that happens has a reason, that leap of faith can take you anywhere. In one word: this film is beautiful, haunting and very intense! This is one of those movies that will stay with you long after you watched it. You will feel the tension coming out of it while watching binding emotional themes and how two stories develop with help of the background themes. All in all it was a unique rewarding film experience for me. The ending said it all!