If Guy Debord made a romcom this is what it would be like. This is a really unusual film, but no less enjoyable. In some ways it reminded me of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", because it has themes of identity and memory, but there's arguably nothing fantastic to make the plot line work - no magic, no implausible technology. The protagonist's son, a producer, makes content for streaming platforms, and as a sideline offers people direct personal experiences using the sets and actors - so that they can go back in time to an earlier era and just be there. And the protagonist, whose marriage is on the rocks, wants to go back to 1970s Lyon where he met and fell in love with his wife.
And it's brilliantly done - the bar they met in (the eponymous Belle Epoque) is lovingly recreated and populated, a woman plays the younger version of his wife-to-be, and he falls in love with her. And then this plays out, with all of its contradictions and difficulties.
That's not a plot summary - it's actually much more sophisticated and more interesting. It probably bears watching twice, which I almost never say.
Watched on BBC iPlayer via smartphone and Chromecast.
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