Let the Sunshine In

Director Claire Denis gives a wry account of an artist’s search for love, in this witty black comedy starring Juliette Binoche.

Romantic love is a curse and Juliette Binoche’s Isabelle has it bad. She’s an artist caught up in a series of unsatisfying affairs: a litany of lovers that includes a callous banker, a capricious actor and an ex-husband who has watched too much porn. Still, she keeps searching for a man to walk with hand-in-hand through life, even if she’s not certain that’s what she really wants. Riffing on Barthes’ A Lover’s Discourse, Claire Denis injects black humour into this witty journey through indecision, idealism and sexual dissatisfaction. The cast is a who’s-who of French cinema, including Xavier Beauvois (himself a filmmaker, director of Of Gods and Men) and Denis regular Alex Descas (35 Shots of Rum). Binoche, meanwhile, sparkles in a sexually charged role as a woman seeking signposts to life – from the lyrics of Etta James’ ‘At Last’ to Gérard Depardieu’s self-serving tarot reader.