Photo: Jean-Pascal Hattu's 7 Years
The scent of a lover aids a geographically separated couple's efforts to stay together in 7 Years, a debut from French filmmaker Jean-Pascal Hattu that exhibits a familiar trace of the Dardennes' observational astringency. With a detached, watchful gaze, Hattu's film charts the romantic triangle that blossoms between lonely Maïté (Valérie Donzelli), her incarcerated and demanding husband Vincent (Bruno Todeschini), and a pushy stranger named Jean (Cyril Troley) who, while coming on to Maïté outside the prison, claims to be visiting his locked-up brother. Maïté's personal and professional life is propelled along by the suggestions of others, and her dutiful acceptance of external advice leads her to engage in a functional physical relationship with Jean that's complicated by his admission that he is, in fact, a prison guard with close ties to Vincent. Nick Schager
The scent of a lover aids a geographically separated couple's efforts to stay together in 7 Years, a debut from French filmmaker Jean-Pascal Hattu that exhibits a familiar trace of the Dardennes' observational astringency. With a detached, watchful gaze, Hattu's film charts the romantic triangle that blossoms between lonely Maïté (Valérie Donzelli), her incarcerated and demanding husband Vincent (Bruno Todeschini), and a pushy stranger named Jean (Cyril Troley) who, while coming on to Maïté outside the prison, claims to be visiting his locked-up brother. Maïté's personal and professional life is propelled along by the suggestions of others, and her dutiful acceptance of external advice leads her to engage in a functional physical relationship with Jean that's complicated by his admission that he is, in fact, a prison guard with close ties to Vincent. Nick Schager
