An Affair of Love Review

by Jeremiah Kipp (cnull AT mindspring DOT com)
January 18th, 2001
AN AFFAIR OF LOVE (Une liaison pornographique)
    A film review by Jeremiah Kipp
    Copyright 2001 filmcritic.com
    filmcritic.com

My first thought was, "Oh God, another one of those pretentious foreign
art house sex films." The opening shot features one of those busy
Parisian streets, the locals hustling by in a blur of slow motion. This
city tells a thousand stories, my friends, and An Affair of Love is one
of them.

As if to add insult to injury, our first actual scenes are of the woman
(Nathalie Baye, Day For Night) and man (Sergi López) after the affair,
being interviewed by some off-screen voice. It's very When Harry Met
Sally, only with the added layer of being French lovers talking about
their passionate encounters. Hoo boy, this is gonna be a long road,
isn't it?

We learn that the woman placed an ad in a magazine. Of all the
potential candidates, this man seemed the most interesting. He's
handsome in a boyish sort of way, seemingly affable if slightly dorky.
She's a little older than he is, more world-wise, more open to
experience and experiment. They don't tell each other their names,
ages, professions, where they live. It was meant to be nothing
personal.

After the round of interview footage, Affair goes back in time to their
first encounter at a cafe. She's already booked a room. Through a
series of nervous false starts, they make it through a halting
conversation. At the hotel, it seems an eternity for the desk clerk to
ring up the man's credit card, then they take the long walk up the
stairs and down the hallway, through the bright red door.

It suddenly dawned on me that perhaps half an hour had gone by in the
blink of an eye. I was utterly enthralled by every small nuance of this
encounter, every beat of silence.

Nathalie Baye's face is lined with age. Perhaps she's in her mid-40s,
but very fit for a woman who might have mothered children. Her eyes
flicker and dance, but she's not the type to give much away. Bright,
courteous, sexually open - she's interesting even though we know very
little about her. All we can tell, as the man freely admits, is that
she's a real woman. In today's age where attractive girls are all
models and pin-ups, this film finds beauty in the normal lady walking
down the street.

Sergi López makes for a nice foil. He's a little tubby and hairy, but
he doesn't take himself too seriously. He has friendly, soft eyes, and
a mouth which is quick to smile. At the first meeting, he's perhaps a
little more nervous than she. He does order a cognac to brace himself.

Their first sexual encounter, which is built up to so vividly, remains
behind closed doors. Maybe that's as it should be. For a film about
sex, there isn't very much of it shown during the film. In a way, this
makes it all the sweeter as we watch them during their second meeting at
the cafe. Once more we don't see their amour. After the hotel, that
second time, the man works up the courage to ask her to dinner later
that night.

On they go, never learning where the other lives. They keep much as a
mystery from each other, but reveal enough to keep us interested. Maybe
that's the nature of affairs, especially sexual ones. The secrets.

The film runs a little over ninety minutes. It's never dull. I could
have done without the frequent voice-overs, which run over scenes where
I might have preferred to hear the naturalistic dialogue between the
lovers. I'm also no big fan of self-conscious "interview" footage,
which only served to make me wonder how the documentarian tracked them
down. These faults, while glaring, are forgiven because the rest of the
film feels so alluring, so sexy and smart. They meet, they talk, they
make love and, slowly, grow closer.

There are many scenes where they talk frankly about sex. As for the
actual onscreen lovemaking, it is kept to a minimum, but there's a
startling scene midway which has them in bed slowly working their way
toward orgasm. This is not the sex of Hollywood gloss, or even of art
house decadence, or even of pornography.

Sex in American films is either a marathon, a farce, a music video, or a
tragedy. An Affair of Love is all of the above, only less
self-important. It's insubstantial, but that's pretty much the point.
They only had what they had and the rest is in their memories. So it is
for the viewer, too. Maybe it's only worth a rental, but that's more
than what you'd expect walking in.

RATING: ***

|------------------------------|
\ ***** Perfection \
\ **** Good, memorable film \
    \ *** Average, hits and misses \
    \ ** Sub-par on many levels \
    \ * Unquestionably awful \
    |------------------------------|

MPAA Rating: R

Director: Frédéric Fonteyne
Producers: Patrick Quinet, Rolf Schmid, Claude Waringo
Writer: Philippe Blasband
Starring: Nathalie Baye, Sergi López, Jacques Viala
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