Product Description

Enormously charming and affecting, Not Here To Be Loved tells the story of world weary Jean-Claude (Patrick Chesnais) who, tired of his thankless job as a bailiff, decides on a whim to shake himself out of his rut by enrolling for tango lessons. There he meets Françoise (Anne Consigny), who is learning to dance in preparation for her impending wedding. Recognising in each other a mutual longing for something more from life, Jean-Claude and Françoise put aside their natural reserve and a tentative friendship develops that may just turn their lives upside down. Played with great depth and subtlety by Chesnais and Consigny, Stephane Brizé s film is a tender and beautifully observed study of two people who have who have never quite learned to love or be loved.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14046 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-10-22
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 94 minutes

Synopsis
Following the trials and tribulations of divorcee, Jean-Claude who enrol is a dance class to broaden his romantic horizons. NOT HEAR TO BE LOVED is a charming romantic comedy that examines the difficulties of finding love in middle-aged life.

Customer Reviews

Beautiful Love Story
Patrick Chesnais plays Jean-Claude, a bailif who's in his mid 50s. He's got an annoying father that complains about everything, and nothing else much. He goes around town warning people they haven't got long to pay for their rent - and goes back to the office to fill out endless paperwork.

His mind is fixated on the tango school next door, and dreams of dancing the tango with women. So one day he goes there, and he finds a friend from the days he used to baby sit. Francoise (Anne Consigny - 36 (the film, not her age)) has got marriage plans with her new fiancé, but she's confused and starts having a crush on Jean-Claude.

The film follows their ups and downs, well mainly Jean-Claude's - and how he teaches his aprentice to go and grow flowers instead of doing the mundane job of working for the bailif's office.

This film is beautiful, the dancing is well captured and you get the feeling of intimacy that you'd feel while doing the tango with a beautiful young woman. The camera angles are subline and it's just stylishly done, like a lot of French movies, it's got such passion and psychology, and lets you make up your own mind about things. Both the lead roles are performed flawlessly, and the scenerio is borderline fantasy with moments of realism. The music is great, mainly tango, but works well with the other parts of the film.

Definately worth renting, as the extras are not much cop, two interviews, a trailer and their filmographies - but that's all you really need. Artificial Eye have done a good job of the transfer, it's colours are great and the audio is well balanced, though they could have done with putting more dynamics at times. A louder speech track would have been better, but I did watch this in Dolby 2.0 rather than the 5.1.

Well worth watching if you like indie films.

Tango Loving Bailiff
"Not Here To Be Loved" is an engaging love story about a lonely, sad looking 50 year old man,Jean Claude,who meets a much younger woman,Francoise,at tango lessons.Jean Claude is a bailiff by profession and his dreams of a romantic friendship are hampered by Francoise's engagement to a writer.Will he find happiness with her or will he be condemned to continued isolation broken only by weekend visits to his ungrateful, grumpy father in his nursing home ? This French film is well acted and it's characters are well rounded and easy to empathise with."Not Here To Be Loved" is gently paced and it is a likeable film.

A quiet Tour de Force
Love tango, although I still haven't got as far as dancing it yet!!! I will though. For lovers of tango or a quiet, but entrancing French film...this is excellent. Highly recommended.