Without a doubt, it’s the good surprise of the week. All the Suns, (Tous les Soleils) is a delightful comedy, the kind of film that lightens your day. I am not writing this out of pure kindness or exaggeration. The reason is simpler. I must confess that I didn’t actually watch this movie on purpose, even though a few days before I had been tempted upon hearing actress Clotilde Coureau on the French radio, talking with wholeheartedness about her role. In fact, I missed the beginning of the movie I wanted to see, The Company Men, a sort of typical American movie with a plethora of great Hollywood actors, which deals with the failure of the American dream. So instead…

The plot of Tous les Soleils is not complicated. In the charming city of Strasbourg in North-East France, Alessandro, an Italian-born professor of baroque music, is facing personal problems. A widower, he can’t stop thinking about his wife who died in a car accident just a few months after the birth of their only daughter, now a fifteen-year-old high school student. And it is precisely with this young lady, Irina (Lisa Cipriani), who is starting to experience her teenage years with all their inherent consequences (first loves, disobedience, acts of rebellion…) that he doesn’t know how to act. In other words, he’s a lost father, a lost man and a lost lover. But this endearing character – who, for instance, shows his students how to dance the ‘tarantella’ in a laughable scene - tries to keep on. When not spending time in his choral group or with a group of long-time friends in their secondary home or in one of their wine caves, Alessandro - played by actor Stefano Accorsi - goes to a hospital to read for old people.

And progressively, it is to one of these old people, Agathe, wonderfully played by one of France’s greatest actresses Anouck Aimé (who has a 55-year career behind her…) - whose soft performance is powerful - that he gets closed to. She is his “favourite” patient and when she passes away, he meets her daughter, Florence (Clotilde Coureau) at the funeral. Really affected by the death of her mother, she complains that she had not talked and discussed as she wished with her mother. Suddenly, alchemy starts. But I won’t say more. You got to see it!

All the Suns

@Luc Roux

Overall, this non-communication, this lack of understanding between people and the melancholy felt towards those who are gone, is thus at the centre of the movie. The interest is to show situations that happen in life: when you lose someone you love and with whom you had communication problems because of common misunderstandings, or even when your parents don’t realize that you are not a kid anymore and that you are an adult with self-made opinions.

Surrounding the original plot, one notices that there is a sort of ‘dolce vita’ - an ‘Italian touch’ so to speak - with the music, the sense of friendship, the food and the wine… 49-year-old Claudel, who his bound to his native eastern region of France, depicts with charm and sincerity the notions of memory, melancholy and human relations throughout the film. After his acclaimed first movie in 2008, I have loved you so long (Il y a longtemps que je t’aime), featuring Elsa Zylberstein and Kristin Scott Thomas, Philippe Claudel proves once more that he has a huge potential not only for writing books, but also for directing movies.

Another nice character of the movie is doubtlessly the leading character’s brother, Crampone (Néri Marcoré), an anarchist who lives with Alessandro and Irina. This utopian has decided not to leave home until Berlusconi - whom he hates - steps down from power. Crampone, who never gets out of his dressing gown, has convinced the post woman to take action against her hierarchy, and intends to go further. He unsuccessfully attacked Il Cavaliere in front of the International Court of Justice and wants to be recognized as a political asylum seeker in France, a move that makes the civil servant from the immigration administration totally crazy. The unpredictable Crampone also makes the audience laugh when he starts searching for a woman for his brother, whose love life is a desert.

All the Suns, of which the main weaknesses remain in the unbalanced quality of performances and the sometimes clichéd images, is a delightful and spring-like comedy. A must-see film if you want to relax and forget for a time the heavy-content movies.