---
title: "I've Loved You So Long"
year: 2008
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/ive-loved-you-so-long"
fi1m_id: "ive-loved-you-so-long"
imdb_id: "tt1068649"
tmdb_id: 8276
wikidata_id: "Q1249706"
fi1m_score: 78
critics_score: 74
critics_reviews: 10
published: "2026-10-01T20:20:23.455287+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-01T20:20:24.015644+00:00"
region: "AU"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# I've Loved You So Long (2008)

Directed by Philippe Claudel · 1h 55m · Drama

## Identity

I've Loved You So Long

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/ive-loved-you-so-long
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** ive-loved-you-so-long
- **IMDb ID:** tt1068649
- **TMDB ID:** 8276
- **Wikidata ID:** Q1249706
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1068649/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/8276, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1249706

**Fi1m score: 78** · Critics 74 from 10 reviews

*In a sentence:* Kristin Scott Thomas says almost nothing for two hours and the whole of Nancy leans in to listen

> Philippe Claudel’s first film gives Kristin Scott Thomas, in French, a woman out of prison after fifteen years and not yet out of anything else. She is remarkable. The film around her is decent and careful, and it explains too much at the end.

## Synopsis

Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) is sitting in an airport café, smoking, when her younger sister Léa (Elsa Zylberstein) comes to collect her. They have not seen each other in fifteen years. Juliette has been in prison. Léa teaches literature at the university in Nancy and brings her home to a house full of books, a husband, Luc (Serge Hazanavicius), who does not want her near his children, two adopted daughters, including P’tit Lys (Lise Ségur), and Luc’s father Papy Paul (Jean-Claude Arnaud), who has lost his speech to a stroke and reads all day. Juliette must report to a police captain, Fauré (Frédéric Pierrot), find work when nobody will hire her, and sit through family meals where the one subject is the one nobody raises. Léa wants her sister back. Juliette is not sure she is still there.

## Review

Philippe Claudel is a novelist, and this is his first film as director, which you could guess from the dialogue and would never guess from the lead. Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) comes out of prison after fifteen years and goes to live with her sister Léa (Elsa Zylberstein) in Nancy, in a house with a husband who does not trust her, two small girls and a great many books. What she did comes out early, in a job interview, and it is bad enough that Léa’s husband Luc (Serge Hazanavicius) has his reasons. Why she did it is held back until the end. It is a good film, worth your evening, and it is carried by one performance.

Scott Thomas has spent much of her English-language career being cool in good coats. Here she is in a borrowed anorak with no make-up, speaking French, and doing almost nothing. Juliette smokes, sits, and answers questions with the fewest words that will end the conversation. Watch her in the interview with a man who wants to know what she went down for. She tells him, flat, and the air goes out of the office. We flinched, and so did he, and the film had us from there. What is striking is how much Scott Thomas lets through later: a dry remark at a dinner party that the guests take for a joke, a half-smile when P’tit Lys (Lise Ségur) asks where she has been and she says, far away.

Jérôme Alméras shoots Nancy in winter grey and the sisters’ house in low lamplight that makes the books look warmer than the people. Samuel Deshors’s production design puts shelves in every room and sits Papy Paul (Jean-Claude Arnaud), mute since a stroke, in a corner with a novel. Laurence Esnault and Jacqueline Bouchard dress Juliette in the same two or three dark things for most of the film; when Léa takes her shopping and she comes out in colour, it counts. Virginie Bruant cuts slowly and lets scenes end on a face rather than a line. The music, by Jean-Louis Aubert and Edouard Dubois, is sparse and mostly guitar, and stays out of the way.

Zylberstein has the harder part, because Léa talks. She wants back a sister she lost when she was too young to be told anything. The scene most people will remember is the one at the swimming pool, where the two women float side by side and Juliette finally says something about the inside of a cell. We were more moved by the earlier one in which Léa, in front of her students, stops being able to teach. Frédéric Pierrot’s Captain Fauré, to whom Juliette must report, is a lonely man who talks about rivers he has never seen. Claire Johnston has one scene as the sisters’ mother, in a care home, and it got to us more than we were ready for: she does not know Léa, and then for a moment she takes Juliette for the girl she was.

The trouble is the writing, and it is a novelist’s trouble. Claudel gives nearly everyone a speech that says what the scene is about. Fauré explains loneliness. A dinner guest explains what people assume about women like Juliette. Then the ending. The film has kept one thing back for a hundred minutes and in the last fifteen it tells us, in a scene between the sisters that goes on past the point where it has worked. We will not say what the reason is. We will say that it is a reason, that it is built to let the audience off, and that the film was braver when it refused to.

Most critics liked it less than we did, and the ones who liked it least were cross about that last scene. We would still send you. It is 115 minutes, and for a hundred of them a woman sits in a kitchen and lets a family find out, slowly, that she is still a person. Scott Thomas does that with a cigarette and a look, and it is enough.

*Fi1m score 78, published 1 October 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics like it, and nearly all of them like it for the same reason: Kristin Scott Thomas. Review after review names her performance first, praising its restraint, its quiet weight and the flashes of dry wit underneath. Philippe Claudel’s direction is credited with keeping the drama understated and credible, so the family tensions build without being forced, and most reviews find the result moving.

The reservations are about the writing, not the acting. Slant finds the script didactic and the pacing uneven; The New Yorker thinks the film withholds too much about Juliette’s crime; Empire, otherwise warm, calls the final scene a wrong note. The spread is wide for a film this well liked. Only Paste comes out against it, arguing that the film piles on suffering without reaching any catharsis, though even that review admires Scott Thomas.

## Straight answers

**Is I've Loved You So Long worth watching?**

*I've Loved You So Long* is worth watching for anyone who can sit with a quiet, slow family drama carried by one performance, and we scored it 78. Kristin Scott Thomas, in French and almost silent, is the reason to see it. The writing explains too much, and the ending hands over a reason the film was braver without.

**How long is I've Loved You So Long, and what is it rated?**

*I've Loved You So Long* runs 1h 55m. It is a drama film.

**Where can I watch I've Loved You So Long in Australia?**

*I've Loved You So Long* is available to rent from Apple TV from A$4.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How does I've Loved You So Long compare to Secrets & Lies?**

*I've Loved You So Long* is the quieter film and [*Secrets & Lies*](https://film.one/film/secrets-and-lies) the richer one, and we would send most people to Mike Leigh first. Both are family reunions where the one subject nobody raises hangs over every meal, and both are let down when the script spells out feelings we already understood. Leigh's is funnier and more generous; Claudel's belongs to Kristin Scott Thomas and a borrowed anorak.

**What should I watch after I've Loved You So Long?**

After *I've Loved You So Long*, try [*Secrets & Lies*](https://film.one/film/secrets-and-lies) (1996, Fi1m 88): Mike Leigh’s family reunion, where the barbecue scene does what a confession cannot. Then [*Three Colours: Blue*](https://film.one/film/three-colors-blue) (1993, Fi1m 88): Juliette Binoche grieves in Paris; Kieślowski trusts her face over any speech; and [*Rachel Getting Married*](https://film.one/film/rachel-getting-married) (2008, Fi1m 84): A sister back from somewhere nobody wants to discuss, at a wedding that cannot stop for her.

### Reviews we read (10)

- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Maggie Lee (95/100, inferred): Lee finds the film deeply moving and praises Philippe Claudel’s assured direction and carefully shaped storytelling. She singles out Kristin Scott Thomas’s performance as stupendous, with the supporting cast also strengthening the film. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/ive-loved-you-long-125309/)
- **The AV Club**, Scott Tobias (B+): The review finds the drama perceptive and restrained, with family bonds tested by guilt and mistrust. It especially praises the restraint that gives a late volcanic confrontation its power. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/ive-loved-you-so-long-1798205098)
- **Empire**, Phil de Semlyen (80/100, inferred): The review praises the film as pitch-perfect overall, despite a discordant final scene. It singles out Kristin Scott Thomas’s performance for its vitality and warmth. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/ve-loved-long-review/)
- **Time Out**, Nina Caplan (4/5): Caplan frames the film as a jailbreak story in an unconventional sense. The available description singles out Kristin Scott Thomas’s fluent French. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/ive-loved-you-so-long)
- **Slant Magazine**, Aaron Cutler (3/4): Cutler finds the film worthwhile despite didactic writing and uneven pacing. He especially praises Kristen Scott Thomas’s deeply affecting performance. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/ive-loved-you-so-long/)
- **The Guardian**, Phelim O'Neill (75/100, inferred): The review is strongly positive about the film’s credible, understated drama. It especially praises Kristin Scott Thomas’s precise and restrained performance. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/feb/14/ive-loved-you-so-long-dvd-review)
- **Variety**, Derek Elley (75/100, inferred): The critic finds the film engrossing and emotionally rewarding despite its understated events. He especially praises Kristin Scott Thomas’s lead performance for its quiet heft and flashes of mordant wit. [Read](https://variety.com/2008/film/awards/i-ve-loved-you-so-long-1200548024/)
- **Screen Daily**, Jonathan Romney (65/100, inferred): The page identifies this as a review, but its assessment is hidden behind a paywall. The accessible text does not reveal what the critic praises or criticizes. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/ive-loved-you-so-long--il-ya-longtemps-que-je-taime-/4037346.article)
- **The New Yorker**, David Denby (65/100, inferred): Denby finds the film moving and perceptive, though he thinks its handling of Juliette’s crime feels unfairly withholding. He praises Kristin Scott Thomas’s fascinating performance and Claudel’s finely observed details of intimacy. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/11/10/dirty-secrets)
- **Paste**, Andy Beta (35/100, inferred): The critic finds the film ambitious but ultimately lacking in catharsis. They praise Kristin Scott Thomas’s haunted performance while faulting the film’s overloaded approach to suffering. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/philippe-claudel/ive-loved-you-so-long)

## Details

- **Director:** Philippe Claudel
- **Director:** Philippe Claudel
- **Writer:** Philippe Claudel
- **Cinematography:** Jérôme Alméras
- **Editor:** Virginie Bruant
- **Music:** Jean-Louis Aubert, Edouard Dubois
- **Production design:** Samuel Deshors
- **Costume design:** Jacqueline Bouchard, Laurence Esnault
- **Producer:** Yves Marmion
- **Cast:** Kristin Scott Thomas as Juliette; Elsa Zylberstein as Léa; Serge Hazanavicius as Luc; Claire Johnston as Mère; Frédéric Pierrot as Capitaine Fauré; Laurent Grévill as Michel; Lise Ségur as P'tit Lys; Jean-Claude Arnaud as Papy Paul
- **Runtime:** 1h 55m
- **First release (Belgium):** 19 March 2008
- **Genres:** Drama

## Where to watch in Australia

- Apple TV: rent A$4.99, hd
- Apple TV: buy A$8.99, sd

*Checked 2026-10-01.*

Also available in: AU, CA, FR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- César Award for Best Actress 2009: César Award for Best Actress (nominated)
- European Film Award for Best Actress 2008: European Film Award for Best Actress (won)

## If you liked this

- *The Son* (2002): The Dardennes watch a carpenter watch a boy; the reason is withheld and never explained away.
- *Secrets & Lies* (1996), Fi1m 88: Mike Leigh’s family reunion, where the barbecue scene does what a confession cannot. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/secrets-and-lies.md)
- *Three Colours: Blue* (1993), Fi1m 88: Juliette Binoche grieves in Paris; Kieślowski trusts her face over any speech. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/three-colors-blue.md)
- *Tell No One* (2006): Scott Thomas in French again, in a thriller with far more running and the same stillness.
- *Rachel Getting Married* (2008), Fi1m 84: A sister back from somewhere nobody wants to discuss, at a wedding that cannot stop for her. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/rachel-getting-married.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/ive-loved-you-so-long