Click here to see the original French trailer.
Showing @ Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Thu 15 Nov only
Noémie Lvovsky / France / 2012 / 120 min
It will come as no surprise that Noémie Lvovsky’s latest film, her tenth directorial outing, is about love, friendship and buried feelings. Heavily involved in feature film dramas in France, Lvovsky pitches another passionate, deeply romantic journey with relationships at its core. Camille (played by Lvovsky herself) travels back in time 24 years to 1985, to relive her sweet sixteen days. Through this cathartic, wistful and somewhat overlong trip she learns a lot about herself, the value of companionship and the comfort of family.
What’s interesting about Camille Rewinds is that it’s wildly indulgent, but not to its detriment. Any film which stars its writer and director is somewhat self-involved to begin with – and there is a general awkwardness in how Lvovsky places herself at the centre of everything – but through this time travel, the reward is shifted back onto the audience. Her journey clearly signals towards the safety of our memories and how romantic we can be about our formative years, but doesn’t get trapped in moralising. Instead, we see glimpses of our own history: poor decisions and snap judgments which have spoiled “what might have been”. There are no hugely profound sentiments here about nostalgia itself, only gentle and truthful observations about recapturing love, life and lust.