Actor and screenwriter Nicolas Bedos’ second feature (after Mr & Mme Adelman in 2017) boasts a spritely up-to-the-minute script which turns on a Westworld-like dramatic conceit that permits well-heeled customers to revisit old times and play out fantasies of the past recaptured. It’s novel notion that’s served by adept writing and staging. Daniel Auteuil, in his element, plays a cartoonist who is given the opportunity to relive his past in order to save his marriage to Fanny Ardant as a psychoanalyst all set to a soundtrack of hits from the likes of Dionnne Warwick and The Monkees.

Cast Daniel Auteuil, Guillaume Canet, Dora Tillier, Fanny Ardant, Pierre Arditi,
Denis Podalydès

Dir Nicolas Bedos | 2019 | France | 113 mins
Handsomely crafted, La Belle époque cleverly works through the complications of blurring fact and fantasy. – Screen