Eclectic director Christophe Honoré returns to musicals with Beloved, which was accorded the honour of closing this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Utilising an all-star cast, Honoré cleverly covers a span of four decades in the lives of Madeleine (played first by Ludivine Sagnier, then Catherine Deneuve) and her daughter Véra (Chiara Mastroianni). The younger Madeleine is a prostitute who marries one of her clients. Though the marriage eventually ends, neither can let go. Véra, meanwhile, is in love with a gay man and blind to the fact that her friend Clément (Louis Garrel) loves her. Against this complicated backdrop, Honoré contrasts the sexual freedom of Madeleine’s youth with the safe-sex era in which Véra grows up. Enjoyably bittersweet, it’s a film of great heart and emotion.<