Beloved15

In a stroke of inspiration, director Christophe Honoré cast real-life mother and daughter Catherine Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni in this globe-trotting musical extravaganza with distinct shades of Jacques Demy. Based on several love stories, it spans different cities over more than four decades, from Paris and Prague in the 1960s to contemporary London and Montreal. Honoré is a dab hand at capturing the melancholy and ennui d’amour with which French cinema is often identified, and his song composer, Alex Beaupain, is a perfect collaborator – his sorrowful lowkey numbers illustrate the passion and despair of unrequited, mismatched or unconsummated desire.