Anais Demostier and Vincent Lacoste as a couple in a historical-romantic nugget: Who is Le Temps d’aimer dedicated to?

It delighted its first audience in an out-of-competition screening at the Cannes premiere in 2023, before winning the best film prize at the Angoulême French-language film festival last August: Le Temps d’aimer finally hit the darkrooms. From November 29, you can really discover this thrilling melodrama, illuminated by the talents of Anais Demostier and Vincent Lacoste.

Katell Quillévéré’s fourth feature following A Violent Poison, Suzanne and Repairing the Living, the film depicts a love story both thrilling and unique, spanning years, obstacles, encounters and secrets.

A story that begins after World War II in 1947 with black-and-white archival images of mutilated women. A few years later, it is on the Breton coast that we find ourselves in front of Madeleine, a young woman who accompanies us. Her little boy named Daniel.

Francois soon joined the duo. More than proof, it’s providence that seems to put these two on the same path. From this meeting, the romance of a lifetime is born in the heart of this couple, which hides secrets and puts their love to the test.

If it unfolds fantastically, with a screenplay written by the director and Gilles Tauran (already working on a film adaptation of Réparer les vivants), Le Temps d’aimer was nevertheless born from a very personal background.

TIME OF LOVE: WHO IS SIMONE QUILLEVÉRÉ, WHO IS THE FILM DEDICATED TO?

“The origin is the story of my grandmother, with whom I was very closeKatel Quillévéré explains. He always made me feel like he had a hidden story, a “secret”. I also always, vaguely, knew that it was important not to ask any questions, to respect your silence. Until someone outside the family, in this case my partner, helped me discover the truth.“

and in detail: “During the occupation, she had a relationship with a German soldier, by whom she became pregnant. She became a single mother at the age of 17. She met my grandfather four years later, on the coast of Brittany.

He was from a much richer social background than hers. Against the wishes of his parents, he got married and adopted a child. The secret of this child’s real paternity was revealed too late. My grandmother was over eighty years old, and my grandfather was long dead. Their relationship and its secret always makes me doubt…“

As a nod to the familial roots, Cattel Quillevere signs a true cinematic, both personal and universal, throwing us into a story with a small h that lights it up with a capital H.

A touching story, which he only completed with a tribute to his grandmother, Simone Quillevere, to whom he dedicates Le Temps d’aimer.

Find Le Temps d’aimer now and exclusively in theaters.