Françoise, a Paris-based art historian, plans a return to her native city and college to teach an art class at the University of Rennes, delivering unique and multi-faceted lectures that weave geography and history into discussions of Poussin and other artists. Her troubled student Ion is contending with his itinerant alcoholic mother, Moon, as well as the demands of university life. From these two seemingly disparate characters, Suite Armoricaine weaves a seductive web of relationships and memories grounded in very specific places and contexts. When Ion falls down in Françoise’s class, the view is initially from the teacher’s perspective, but then the story rewinds and the reasons behind his tumble take on different notes. This fluidity and musicality of themes and visual presentation recalls the work of Arnaud Desplechin, with the similar regional specificity of some of his work. Though the film’s title comes from a particular Breton song, the idea of a musical suite is never far off as this magisterial director weaves in multiple counterpoints—the tragic Moon (a heartbreaking Elina Löwensohn); Ion’s blind girlfriend Lydie; and Catherine, Françoise’s dramatic friend from college—to complement the grand but very human stories at its center.
