People always complain that characters in movies are too shallow. Men
and women get together quickly and knock it out for no apparent reason
other than to have sex. They don't talk about their feelings, they don't
reflect on their relationship. Everything is simple, quick, and over to
sate the appetites of the movie-going public. An Affair of Love
is for anyone looking for a thoughtful meditation on a relationship. The
original French title was Une Liaison Pornagraphique, which, using
HARO Online's extensive French abilities, translates roughly as A Pornographic
Liaison, not An Affair of Love. Why the title change? Probably
to make sure the movie is not mistaken for something else. Too bad the
new title does not fit the movie at all.
An Affair of Love is about pornography, though not in the graphic
sense. It is about two people who get together purely for anonymous sex,
and little else. There is no real element of love in their relationship,
just lust. In fact, their names do not even matter. They are simply Her
(Nathalie Baye, The Return of Martin Guerre) and Him (Sergei Lopez,
Western). They meet through a singles ad with the intention of
consummating some sexual act. What act? Director Frederique Fonteyne and
writer Phillipe Blasband never reveal it. The first few times they meet,
the camera discreetly stays outside the hotel room, focused on the door.
Only after their lovemaking becomes more conventional does the camera
enter the hotel room. Fonteyne also gives An Affair of Love a documentary-like
feel. Interspersed between the torrid affair are interviews with Him and
Her, each reminiscing on their relationship.
The interviews are what set the movie ahead of the pack. Both people
try to analyze the relationship from their own point of view. When they
meet, both initially agree to not to reveal anything personal. Their meetings
are awkward and touching at the same time. They soon develop an infatuation
with each other that both mistake for love. It is the infatuation that
rises at the beginning of relationships, and is more a love for the idea
of a relationship rather than a person.
Baye and Lopez give intense performances. Their meetings begin with hesitation,
but soon they look forward to their weekly trysts. The true emotion emerges
during the interviews. They speak openly about their feelings, holding
back nothing from the interviewer except for their initial act. This restraint
gives them humanity. Their act was so personal that revealing it is an
intrusion on their lives. There is not that much sex in the movie. Fonteyne
relies on the strength of Baye and Lopez's frank and honest portrayals.
Dialogue and feeling are what drives An Affair of Love, not sex
and violence. It takes a lot for a movie to engross a view so, and even
more when the main thing used to captivate someone to a screen is words.
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