Clara et moi (2004)
Directed by Arnaud Viard

Film Review

Clara et moi is an engaging French love story, a film of great sensitivity and charm which marks a promising directorial debut for Arnaud Viard.  One feature of the film is that its first and second halves are strikingly different in tone and emotional impact.  The film at first resembles a wry parody of a traditional French romantic-comedy, and even includes a musical sequence that appears to have fallen out of a Jacques Demy film.  Whilst this part of the film is certainly appealing, it isn't until the second half that the full emotional force of the drama begins to assert itself.  Antoine's reaction to the news that Clara has AIDS is scripted and performed with great conviction, and it's heart-breaking to watch Antoine as he struggles to place his true feelings for the woman he loves above his instinctive cowardice and ingrained narcissism.  Ultimately, the film is less about a tragic romance and more about a man painfully discovering his humanity through a devastating turn of events.

The film was shot in Digital Video but it still looks stunning, and Viard's cinematographer brings not only a lyrical quality to the drama but also a heightened sense of reality by subtly underscoring the feelings and emotions of the main protagonists.  Above all else, it is the perfectly judged performances from the lead actors - Julien Boisselier and Julie Gayet - which most make this such a memorable and blisteringly authentic film.  Although it is unashamedly a tear-jerker of the traditional kind, Clara et moi stands apart as a particularly good example of its genre, because it is so refreshingly understated and so brutally honest in its depiction of human frailty. Well-received though the film was, it would be over a decade before Viard returned to the director's chair, to make the suitably titled Arnaud fait son 2e film (2015).

Film Synopsis

Antoine is 33, a struggling actor living in Paris.  Outwardly, he appears happy and satisfied with his life; inwardly, he is tortured by solitude.  One day, he gets up and decides to find a woman with whom he will start a family.  The challenge proves to be a lot easier than he imagined.  In the metro, he makes eye contact with an attractive young woman, Clara, who gives him her phone number.  The two meet up soon after and they instantly discover they are made for one another.  Of course it is inevitable they will get married and have children and live happily ever after.  But then Clara discovers she is HIV positive.  How will Antoine - an idealistic and self-centred young man - react to the news?