By Roger Childs
You have to take what’s offered. –Odette Vermillard
A family history drama across 150 years
This is another quality movie from the 2026 French Film Festival. Twenty descendants of Odette Vermillard are summoned to a Parisian lawyer’s office in the mid-2020s and learn that they have inherited a property in Normandy which has been abandoned for over 70 years. A local company wants to buy the site to build an expanded shopping mall and car park. Four of the group – a teacher (Abdel), a bee keeper (Guy), an IT engineer (Céline) and a film maker/digital creator (Seb) – volunteer to investigate and enter the house, and keep in touch with the rest through Zoom sessions.
In 1895 an illiterate 21 year old leaves the Normandy property to travel to Paris where her mother Odette Vermillard had gone to work when Adele was a small child. She abandons her shattered boyfriend Gaspard and catches a steamer on the Seine in search of “Mommy”. In the French capital she finds her mother working in a brothel and tries to untangle what’s going on. On the boat she has met up with two young men – Lucien and Anatole – an early photographer and a budding painter. With nowhere to stay she moves in with the lads at Le Rat Mort but sleeps with a sheet hung between them.
The story moves backwards and forwards between La Belle Epoque – a time of cultural creativity, lively entertainment and the early days of impressionism, and the present day. The contrasts and comparisons between the two eras bring the film to life as the stories unfold. Four and a half stars.
Then and now
Adèle is cautious in the big city, but is also realistic and resilient. She agrees to become Anatole’s artistic model in exchange for his teaching her to read and write.
Director Cedric Klapisch keeps the two stories seamlessly moving along with tight editing and plenty of colour, and cleverly blends the two eras. There are many creative touches. Adèle in cumbersome late nineteenth century travelling clothes climbs up some steps from the river-side path in 1890s Paris and then down comes a black athlete in modern running gear. There are also some nice touches of humour. A lively cat features in the centre of the Zoom group and does some talking as well!
Cinematographer Alexis Kavyrchine makes a meal of the wonderful French scenery and the classic cityscapes, and brings the “two” French capitals to life in evocative style. The recreation of La Belle Epoque Paris is beautifully done, and the settings in Normandy and the capital provide wonderful visual contexts for the evolving stories. As expected there are plenty of surprises in the unfolding tales of Adele’s life in one era and the relationships between the four investigators 130 years later.
The investigating quartet discover some fascinating photos, paintings, journals, letters and other artifacts as they unravel Adèle’s story and one painting could be very valuable. All the actors are excellent, but the standout star is Suzanne Lindon as Adèle.
Highly recommended
Colours of Time (124 minutes) shows yet again the wonderful skills of modern French film making. This is a highly creative and charmante movie which never drags and neatly blends two fascinating eras and dramas. Catch it if you can; Waikanae and other Kapiti folks can see at it at Shoreline.