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The title "Café de Flore" refers not to the popular café on Boulevard Saint-Germain in Paris, but to the film's title track and musical current. By fusing modern electronic and avant-garde elements with old world orchestral sounds, the music connects the two major time periods of the film.

At the 12th Annual Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards, Café de Flore won Best Canadian Film. Paradis was also nominated for Best Actress in a Canadian Film.

Critical Reception
While Café de Flore was generally well recognized by the Canadian film community, the film was met with mediocre reviews and low turnouts in France. The film, which attracted a promising 45 critics upon its initial theatrical début, ultimately amassed less than 85 000 total viewings. In a Téléjournal broadcast, Claude Fugère sums up the general opinion of Parisian critics from Télérama, who called the film a "vaguely esoteric melodrama chock-full of clichés on life, love and death... a disappointment from the director of the excellent C.R.A.Z.Y." In a similar tone, Hubert Lizé, writing for Le Parisien, gives the film one out of five stars, calling Vallée's work "overly ambitious" and his character development "tiresome" and "frustrating". Danielle Attali, writing for Le Journal du Dimanche, gives the film the same rating, calling the plot "convoluted" and "frustrating". In a mixed review, Le Monde critic praises Paradis' performance but notes that "for her [Paradis'] sake, we should be irritated by the film's far-fetched concoction of a dual story line... a far cry from being 'mysterious' or 'mystical'." In contrast to other Parisian reviwers, Mathieu Carratier from Première gives the film 3.75/4 stars, praising Vallée music selection by comparing him to a "DJ who mixes different paths together to better grasp the stories which they tell"

In contrast to the positive reception which the film received from Canadian critics, American reviews were also mixed. Charles Cassady, a reviewer from Video Librarian, gives the film a three out of three stars, uplifting its "bittersweet mise-en-scènce, which thankfully never tips into horror/suspense or becomes carried away with f/x, instead offering a mature and wise (if a little male wish-fulfillment-tinged) take on themes of 'soulmates' and the limitations of love" Variety's Boyd van Hoeij salutes the film's casting, but deems Café de Flore unoriginal, noting that "Vallée has taken what made C.R.A.Z.Y so successful, and simply tried to replicate it on a slightly larger scale. [Occasionally] similarities between the film... are so striking it almost feels like Vallée's ripping himself off".

British critic Ginette Vincendeau gives Café de Flore a mixed review, noting that within the film, "there are convincing and emotionally potent moments... the film is at its best on this register of intimate realism" but that "it is less good when grandstanding on cliché concepts such as the 'perfect soulmate', or the more excessive manifestations of love, maternal or romantic". She concludes her review by stating that though the film attempts to connect two stories in different time periods, the "convoluted leaps in time and space often make the film difficult to follow, and in danger of appearing pretentious rather than sophisticated". The Guardian's Mike McCahill rates the film one out of five stars, calling Vallée's film a "narcissistic", "fundamentally unpersuasive", "head-in-the-clouds" drama with a revelation that may "prove to be the most stupid love twist of the decade".

CineAction critic Alsegul Koc generally praises the film, describing it as "the aftershocks of an amorous earthquake" and as a story which "amplifies the horrors and joys of letting go and starting anew". He praises the film's ability to go deeper into the human psyche, delving into deeper, more emotionally vulnerable areas than conventional love triangle stories. Mary Corliss, writing for TIME magazine, echoes praise for Florent's as well as Paradis' performance, calling them "luminous". She also acclaims Vallée's offbeat cinematic style, nothing that although "the viewer will have to leap with Vallée, his film is so sure-footed, emotionally and cinematically, that that risky step seems like walking on air in a beautiful dream". Globe and Mail critic Guy Dixon gives the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, describing it as "beautiful" and "intricate", and applauds the performance of Florent, who, in his view, played a large role in weaving the two story lines together.[9] Jay Stone from Postmedia News praises Valleé's ability to use music to craft a story of unfailing love, calling him a "visual storyteller" who "creates montages linked by their emotional colours".

SOUNDTRACK Vallée had originally planned to put Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" on the soundtrack, but lead singer Robert Plant turned down its use.

Added to the infobox: screenplay by JMV, added an extra producer: Marie-Claude Poulin, budget of the film, sound designers

Café de Flore (film)