What are they doing
in there... and can I join in?
A
man and a woman meet through a personal ad and
agree to a sexual liaison every Thursday
afternoon where they are free to explore a
specific fetish with one another. Will their
feelings get in the way or will they allow
themselves to disassociate those feelings from
the intimacy?
Lopez and
Baye find these characters with pinpoint
accuracy as they weave in and out of a very
strange situation. They both teeter their
emotions on the edge of love without actually
falling. These are the kinds of
performances that should surely be recognized at
the Oscars if it weren't for the fact that
filthy foreigners aren't welcome to win those
awards too often. It is a shame really
because these two deserve praise.
This
is a beautiful film of need and desire between
two lonely adults. They dare to say to each
other the things that most of us fear to
admit... but they cannot confess the simplest
thing of all, their love for one another. This
is a French film that deserves more exposure
than it will ultimately get, but if you can find
it... watch it.
Roger Ebert said of this film...'it
is, quite simply, one of the most absorbing,
tantalizing and intelligent movies I've ever
seen about sex.' ...and I cannot agree
more!
©
Written by TC Candler
Richard
Propes' Comment
"An Affair
of Love" is a French film with a wonderful
spirit, authentic openness and simple grace that
is both beautiful to watch and cinematically a
joy.
As directed by Frederic Fonteyne, this film has
a beautiful sense of pacing and flow, and
excellent performances by Nathalie Baye and
Sergi Lopez. This is a film with tremendous use
of gesture, facial expression, the subtle
nuances that exist within the context of
relationship and sexuality.
I love the director's use of silence within this
film...it is among the most comfortable uses of
silence I have witnessed cinematically.
Additionally, the film is intelligent with a
strong dialogue. The film does an excellent
exploration of casual sex, treating it
respectfully while also looking beyond it. There
are very few foreign films in which I find
myself surrendered to the filmmaker...I forget
the subtitles, I forget the language barriers.
When I have this experience of complete
surrender, the film becomes a "must-see"
experience...it is a film I MUST SEE again...I
must experience again.
Jacob
Hall's Comment
N/A
