THE BEST YEARS OF A LIFE is the third part of a longest-running film trilogy in film history. In 1966 Claude Lelouch won the Golden Palm in Cannes and two Oscars with UN HOMME ET UNE FEMME. His film was a melancholy, dreamy love story between race driver Jean-Louis (Jean Trintignant) and script girl Anne (Anouk Aimée) with an exquisite pop soundtrack by Francis Lai. The film was pure emotional cinema, a role model for modern love stories like the films of Wong Kar-Wai. 20 years later Lelouch made a second film: UN HOMME ET UNE FEMME – 20 ANS DEJA. The couple wasn‘t together anymore, their children from past relationships were now adults. In the new third part Jean-Louis is 90, sits in a wheelchair, and seems absent during memory training in the nursing home. He loves being in the garden best, recites Verlaine‘s poetry, and dreams of the past. His dreams are images of the 1966 film, and in the context of the new, digitally shot material it feels like a dream, not just of real life, but also real cinema. The old images have a longing and a materiality that current, digital cinema can‘t reach. When Anne is asked by his son to visit him, the intense memories are brought back to life for both of them.

Tom Dorow

Translation: Elinor Lewy