| "An Affair of Love" is the English name of the French film "Une liason d'amour", directed by Frédéric Fonteyne and acted by Nathalie Baye and Sergi Lopez.
The story involves a romance in which certain things are not said, and we
are shown the gradual working out (I mean the evolution and outcome) of
the couple's decision to handle matters that way. There are also certain
things not shown or said to us, the audience, in the picture, and that is
clearly part of the film's message about things left unsaid. The "moral"
of the story is expressed with admirable economy; it doesn't get all weird on you
but also isn't slammed in your face.
Perhaps because this is not a big Hollywood do, I found it much more
tasteful than most of the pictures I've seen over the past year or so - mainly in
Taiwan or on international flights. For one thing, it isn't aimed at
children, the way virtually everything in the US seems to be now. (When
did I get so old? Are there no children in France?) The sex scenes are
relatively explicit, but not nearly so unpleasant as in US movies - in
Hollywood, sex evidently only takes place between athletes who seem to be
covered in body grease. The woman in this film must be 45, and the man I
suppose about 35, and you have the feeling these are real people not that
different from yourself, or what you might want to be in some other life.
They seem to talk like real people, and to be living in a real place.
The scenes of the city of Paris are not dramatic, but reassuring, just as New York scenes sometimes are (in non-Hollywood films - in Hollywood, anyway, all
they ever do is destroy the Chrysler building). You absorb the kinesthetic
sensation of being in a vibrant city, without special shots showing you
tourist sites etc. etc.
I recommend this movie.
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