DOI: 10.20375/0000-0011-4887-4
title: Café de Flore

description: Abstract: 
Café de Flore tells the story of Antoine, a DJ who continues dealing with the stabilization of his family circumstances after his separation from his wife, Carole. Furthermore, the film tells the story of Jaqueline, a single mother in the 1960s in Paris, and approaches her relationship with her son Laurent, who has Down Syndrome. Both temporal storylines are deeply connected by a latent fact that links the protagonists’ lives.

Details: 
Antoine is a 40 year-old-man who is divorced and lives with his new partner, Rose, in Montreal. He shares custody of his two young daughters with Carole, his previous wife, and her girlfriend since they both were teenagers. On the one hand, Antoine is still dealing in therapy with the breakup with Carole; the memories of their relationship, which appear randomly in his head during his daily life; and the feeling of guilt for having broken up his family due to cheating his wife with Rose, to whom now he decides to propose marriage. Furthermore, he had troubles with alcoholism in the past, and after rehabilitation, where he met Rose, he is in a permanent fight against relapse. On the other hand, Carole, who is managing his single status without Antoine, starts having sleepwalking episodes and recurrent dreams about a woman and his son with Down Syndrome. She feels a particular connection with these two people and starts reflecting on them to understand their presence in her mind. 
Jacqueline lives in Paris in the 60s with her son of 7 years, Laurent, who has Down Syndrome. They are very close and spend a lot of time together. Jacqueline is really protective of Laurent in the school atmosphere, and she suffers because of the stigmatizing comments towards him that she listens to on public transport or between the mothers of her son's mates. One day, a new girl arrives in Laurent’s class. Her name is Véronique, and she also has Down Syndrome. She and Laurent immediately strike up a friendship. Soon, they become inseparable to the point that sometimes they argue with their parents when each one has to go home. Laurent tells his mother that Véronique is his new girlfriend, which seems to disappoint her; the new encounters between her son and Véronique, and the consequent lonely afternoons, distress her. One day, Véroniques parents ask Jacquelin whether Laurent can spend the night in their house since he and her daughter do not want to separate one another. Jacqueline goes angrily to their home and forces her son to leave, even slapping him in the face. After that event, the relationship between the mother and the son becomes hostile. In addition, the school's director, Laurent, recommends Jacqueline and Véronique’s parents internalise their sons in a specialized educational centre since they are starting to cause trouble in the class atmosphere. Jacqueline firmly refuses that. 
Back to the present in Montreal, Carole continues having somnambulism, and due to the audiovisual editing, it is revealed that the people she dreams about are Jaqueline and Laurent. Carole decides to hire a medium to find out more information. On the first visit, the medium is suggestible by connecting with Carole, and she tells Carole a few envisioned events related to Jacqueline and Laurent that help her understand her recurrent experiences and the bond she feels with the two people. Faced with a situation beyond her, Jacqueline ended up losing control over her emotional management and began to take disproportionate actions to reestablish it over her child. One day, Jaqueline messed up her whole house to lie to Laurent and tell him that thieves had broken in to simulate an event that would complicate the meetings between her son and Véronique. One day, Jacqueline awakes alone at home. Laurent has gone by himself to the school because he was in a hurry to get back to Veronique. This fact increases the stress in the mother, and that afternoon, she decides to tie her son to his bed while she thinks of a way of having him under control. She decides to lie to Véronique’s parents and tell them that she will visit a special educational centre with her son and that she could take Véronique with them. They agree, and Véronique adds to the appearance of a car journey to the centre. On the road, Jacqueline crashes her car into another car, and they die. 
The medium explains to Carole that there is a transcendent connection between these people in the past and her present situation regarding how Carole, Antoine, and Rose deal with the separation and new love relationship. With the help of the medium, Carole identifies herself as Jacqueline, Antoine as Laurent, and Rose as Véronique. Furthermore, Carole recognises in herself an unconscious fear of danger that affects her ex-husband in his relationship with Rose. This inherited feeling prevents the resolution of the tensions between the three at the present. The sense of danger for Antoine materialises after a family New Year's dinner, where Antoine invites Rose to celebrate it with his family and daughters. Antoine’s father, who does not accept her son's new relationship with Rose, explains this rejection in front of the entire family and asks Antoine to break up with her. After that, Antoine and Rose come back home very upset. Rose is, for a long time, frustrated at not being accepted by her partner’s environment, and Antoine is dissatisfied that his new partnership does not seem to fit as well as Carole's. At that moment, Rose offers Antoine drugs to deal with the stress. Taking them would mean a relapse for both. Antoine decides to flush the drugs down the toilet. After that, they stay silent in the living room and choose to postpone the wedding. Suddenly, Carole arrives at Antoine’s house. She hugs Antoine and asks for his forgiveness, and he replies that she must forgive him. Carole looks at Rose, who approaches, and the three of them hug.
A year later, Rose and Antoine marry. Antoine’s father blesses the new marriage, and Carole attends the wedding and celebrates the day with her daughters, her ex-husband, and Rose.