Claude Lelouch (Paris, 1937) was not aware of the dimension of his feat by uniting Jean-Louis Trintignant and Anouk Aimée again , more than half a century after 'A man and a woman' (1966), in his film ' The most beautiful years of a life '. He realized during the presentation of this one in China: "At the end of the screening they asked me who were the makeup artists who had done such a good job aging the protagonists. Sure, A man and a woman had not been able to release, because it was censored at the time". The French filmmaker was thinking. "I think that happened because young people today cannot imagine that we will wait 53 years to make the continuation of a movie," he reflected. "But it also gives an idea of ​​the current conception about the duration of love."

The most beautiful years of a life, which opens tomorrow in Spain, is "a miracle", in the words of its director. Not only because of the survival of his protagonist partner and the director himself, but because of what he tells us about our relationship with time. Not long ago, we rolled our eyes because Richard Linklater had invested nine years in telling the life of a kid in 'Boyhood'. Well, that challenge stays in a little game before this. "I am not the director," proclaims Lelouch, "it is life."

The reunion of Lelouch, Trintignant and Aimée is also produced with reference to a mythical film, which taught a generation to love for its way of showing intimacy and which took two Oscars (Best non-English-speaking film and Best original script ) and the Golden Palm of Cannes.

The actors thought it was better for the thing to stay that way. The opposite of the director: "The time had come for them to say anything, there was no longer censorship, because after an age, it does not exist."

Already bluntly, Lelouch exposes the ideas that experience has given him. "Love is better than life, in my modest opinion. And this is what I wanted to explain in this movie: love is the only thing that gives meaning to what we do," he explains. "All the time that we consecrate to something other than love is a wasted time. And all we do in life is for them to love us."

Therefore, speaking with the actors, they decided that it was time to say the things that one does not dare when he is young. "So, you think that love and faithfulness go hand in hand. But it's not like that. To be faithful is to be an idiot." And even more: "There is always something better. Being number 1 in someone's life is like in a sports competition: there, when you are second or third, you have a silver or bronze medal. But in love, it is the worst ".

"Love," he continues, "forces us to be formidable, to surpass us, to go further. That is why it has all the virtues. But, in addition, at 80 and so many, it is devoid of prosecution, while the beginning of a relationship is also the beginning of a trial: something is always reproached. And I believe that this absence of judgment is what gives meaning to this. " For him, "love is a journey towards the country of tolerance."

"I think true love accompanies us throughout our lives," he says with a placid smile. "The great love stories are eternal. And the ones that die are the unimportant ones, the adventures.

And all this is also a meta-reflection on art and life itself. "We are here forever. Only our intelligence tells us otherwise, but our unconscious says we are immortal. If not, the idea of ​​death would be unbearable: when you go to a funeral, you know perfectly well that everyone is going to die, except you. How can I continue living if not? "

Love, then, "is part of that immortality." Romantic, Lelouch says: "A crush is a reunion with people you've met in another life. Suddenly, in a second, you know them, without trying to enter the internet to find out who they were. It's proof that we are immortal. It's what I tried to explain in 'La belle histoire' [1992]. Here is another way, but it shows that when Jean-Louis and Anouk meet again, it is the most beautiful day of their lives. that day".

Even so, the film inevitably refers to death, starting with the recent deaths of Francis Lai and Pierre Barouh, composer and lyricist / performer of the unforgettable soundtrack of the original film.

"This is a mission, a duty," Lelouch becomes transcendent. "As if the Great Director, the one up there, told me: 'If you don't make this film, I withdraw you from the circulation.' A kind of condemnation. Despite everyone who advised me against doing so, I felt like an obligation. When you are alone against the world, you have the feeling of being right. "

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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