I have always been unable to accurately grasp the theme of such French literary films. This movie seems to focus on the redemption of family love for people's hearts. In the movie, the attitude of Sister J's family towards her from slight rejection to reluctance acceptance to complete acceptance is very touching, and the tolerance and understanding of her relatives are fully revealed. The family is such a place that will always accept you unconditionally, even if you were once a murderer.
And what I want to say more is another clue of the movie - mother's love. Just imagine how painful it must have been for J back then, watching a child who was in pain but helpless, this was undoubtedly a cruel death sentence for a mother. In the eyes of outsiders, killing his own son is crazy or even dehumanizing, but to J, this may be the most rational decision, and the courage needed to make this decision is unimaginable by others. For more than ten years after that, she became reclusive and silent, and she was forever annihilated with her son. In addition, there is a scene in the movie where the J sisters go to the hospital to visit their mother with Alzheimer's disease. This clip is very intriguing. The mother, who is already demented, can no longer recognize her sister, but recognizes J., who has not seen her for more than ten years, hugs her, and calls her affectionately. This made J at a loss. Maybe she never thought that she could be so close to her mother. Maybe her son's death caused a subtle change in her emotions, making her repulsive to the mother-son relationship. The illness also caused her mother to change her attitude instantly after a short period of tenderness, and pushed J away as a stranger.
The greatest emotion in the world, mother's love, has been defeated by disease. Seeing this, I was thinking, if J also suffers from Alzheimer's disease and forgets her son and what she has done, will it be a relief for her? Can the nightmare of more than ten years end here? For people's hearts, the heaviest shackle is not forgetting, and the most solid threshold is reluctance. When a person really loses his memory and no longer recognizes the faces of relatives, friends and lovers, will he be in pain? I don't think so. Often at this time, it is others who are sad, and others who are reluctant, because once those shared memories pass away with the amnesia of the loved one, then it seems that a part of oneself also disappears forever.
Reminds me of a book I once read, "Sister's Guardian". A pair of parents gave birth to their second daughter, Anna, in order to save their daughter Kate from leukemia. Anna has been dedicating her blood, bone marrow and even kidneys to Kate since she was born. Anna, who grew up slowly, believes that her parents poured all their emotions into Kate, that she exists only for Kate's existence, and that she has no control over her body. So she took her mother to court. The book ends with Anna winning the case but dying in a car accident and donating her organs to her sister Kate. It's not that Anna doesn't love her sister, she's willing to work hard to save her sister, and it's not that she can't understand her parents' actions, but she just wants to rectify her name and win a little more love from her parents. The reluctance to part with one child eventually caused her to lose another child, which is probably a tragic ending that Anna's mother could never have imagined. However, no one can conclude that what she did in the first place was wrong - giving up her own children, mothers do not seem to have such genes. But it was this reluctance that led to tragedy. To give up or not to give up, this is a difficult proposition.
Love takes many forms. Perhaps, letting go is really the ultimate in love.
The name of the film comes from a lyric, a French ballad à la Claire fontaine, the song J taught his niece to play in the movie.
Tu as le cœur à rire You can laugh,
Moi je l'ai à pleurer I can't hide my sadness.
Il ya longtemps que je t'aime Thinking of you for a long time,
Jamais je ne t'oublierai not to be forgotten.
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