Victor Drumond (Daniel Auteuil) is in his 60s and has found himself having to confront some life realisations. His wife Marianne (Fanny Ardant) is tired of his laid back and less than ambitious lifestyle and finally finds an opportunity to throw him out of their home so she can continue her affair (a friend of Victor’s) without complications.
Finding himself in unexpected and unchartered territory he decides to take up a gift from his son that is a time travel reenactment played out in real life. Victor decides to travel back to May 16, 1974 so he can re-live the first time he met his wife and reignite those first feelings of love.
The film is full of “Ground Hog Day” moments as Victor tries to regain the spark in his life and rediscover his young self “time travelling” many times to achieve this. The conception is an interesting one with great performances by Doria Tillier who plays Margot the actress who plays Victor’s young wife. Herself struggling with her relationship with the Time Travels director Antoine (Guillaume Canet) she also gains valuable realisations of what she wants from her life and relationship.
La Belle Epoque is a fun and well-acted film that is not your average predicable love story. It’s a romantic comedy for adults. It has throws of reality mixed with comedy and light hearted nostalgia. It gives you hope that love can still feel as exciting and new like when we were young.
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