Following on with the film reviews from the Leeds International Film Festival (LIFF), Saskia managed to go and see Everybody Loves Jeanne and gave us a full analysis with her own rating!
Written by Saskia Damiao
Directed by Céline Devaux, Everybody Loves Jeanne is a gorgeous French film set in Lisbon, Portugal. The film focused on a French woman called Jeanne who had created an organisation to take out microplastics out of the ocean, while her business is unsuccessful with multiple sponsors having pulled their financing, she is about to be bankrupt. Her mother passed away a year ago, and Jeanne has inherited her mother's apartment in Lisbon. Jeanne is also struggling with her mental health and coming to terms with the death. It's discovered throughout the film that her mother was not particularly outspoken with her love towards either of her children. Jeanne is struggling to empty out her mother's belongings from the apartment, often seeing her in visions. Jeanne bumps into a school friend, Jean, who she doesn't seem to care to remember. Jean is a thief; he is often teaching his young niece different tactics to get the most out of her money. While their names are similar, they could not contrast each other more. Jeanne is closed off, struggling to open herself up emotionally and Jean is a confident, outgoing and a charming guy. The film is heart-warming, very funny and a perfect insight into the realities of death, love and finding peace.
The cartoon elements of the film were very entertaining, every time Jeanne had an inner monologue, her feelings were portrayed by a long-haired figure who spoke in a high-pitched tone and spoke very honestly about her feelings. For example, when Jeanne bumped into Jean, the cartoon resembled how unhappy she was. When he asked for her number, she screamed "NO" in her head. It was brilliant. The film reminded me a lot of Bridget Jones' Diary, it truly resembled an average 30-something-year-old woman who is trying to find a relationship, struggling with realities of life, like death, watching her nephew grow up etc.
The end of the film was somewhat anticlimactic, to me it did not feel concluded. However, when talking to another viewer we deduced that the "unfinished" nature of the film was to define that life cannot always have definitive conclusions, and that the greatest lessons come unpredictably. The ending message of the film was also that you must open yourself up to opportunities, had Jeanne not opened herself up to Jean, she would not have come to terms with her mother's death and overall mental health. The film was perfect, I could not fault any aspect, I would highly recommend seeing this, especially if you like rom coms.
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️