Four days, one country house, and two near-strangers with time on their hands: Emmanuel Mouret's The Things We Say, the Things We Do turns a summer wait into a chain of love stories told, remembered and half-confessed.
What is The Things We Say, the Things We Do about?
Daphne is three months pregnant and expecting a restful break in the countryside with her boyfriend François. Then François is called back to Paris at short notice to cover for a sick colleague, leaving Daphne to receive a guest she barely knows: his cousin Maxime. With nothing to do but wait, the two begin to talk. Over the four days before François returns, their conversations drift into territory most people keep private, and each admission opens the door to another story about someone they once loved, lost, or let go. What starts as polite small talk becomes an exchange that quietly changes how both of them see their own lives.
About the cast
Camélia Jordana and Niels Schneider anchor the central conversations, while Vincent Macaigne, Émilie Dequenne, Jenna Thiam, Guillaume Gouix, Julia Piaton and Louis-Do de Lencquesaing populate the stories that unfold inside the main one. Because so much of the film is carried by talk rather than event, the ensemble spends long stretches simply listening and responding, and the shifts in feeling are played in faces and pauses as much as in lines.
Context & significance
Released in 2020, this French drama-romance runs just over two hours and belongs to a strand of French cinema in which people speak at length, and with unusual candour, about what they want and what they regret. Its structure is a set of nested narratives: a confession in the present prompts a flashback, which in turn introduces other characters with their own entanglements, until the countryside house feels less like a setting than a listening post for an entire circle of friends and lovers. The title points at the gap between what people declare and what they actually do, a gap the film keeps circling without forcing a verdict.
Watching The Things We Say, the Things We Do on Ktime
The Things We Say, the Things We Do streams on K-Time with both a Persian dub and Persian subtitles, so you can choose between hearing the original French performances and following the dialogue in Farsi. Watching requires a K-Time account; signing in is free, and the whole interface, from search to playback controls, is available in Persian.