Fantasy play careens into true passion and a shot at love.
Originally titled “Une liaison pornographique” but sanitized in title with nine less minutes of sexual content for its American release, the 1999 French film “An Affair of Love” begins with the unnamed characters meeting in-person for the first time in the middle of a fuzzy and frenetic view of Paris. Their introduction at a café is awkward but soon relieved by a hastened retreat to a nearby hotel.
She and He never reveal their names to each other or to the audience. They meet once a week at the café in the middle of Paris and go to a nearby hotel. She had placed an ad in a magazine looking for a partner to fulfill a sexual fantasy. He replied.
The two main characters review their relationship separately throughout the film with an anonymous interviewer. We get to see how each saw various moments differently and how those experiences actually happened. It is no secret that the lovers end up apart. However, the way it happens is portrayed as the offspring of poor communication, not lack of love.
The pivotal moment in the relationship occurs when they decide to “make love normally” one day, instead of doing what it is they came together to do. (The act of the fantasy sex is never revealed.) Soon they are opening up their hearts by laying it on the line for one another. They have fallen in love and do not want to be apart.
Yet, they continue to remain anonymous to each other, not revealing their names or where they live or work, and go on with meeting each week at the café as a preamble to their hotel romps.
Why is it that communicating a sexual fantasy is so much easier than acting on the love they develop for one another? How come neither can take the next step of full disclosure and genuine discourse?
Nathalie Baye and Sergi López give subtle and genuine performances as the two lead characters in Frédéric Fonteyne’s incredibly sensual and quintessentially French film. She is mature – evolved? – enough to ask for what she wants sexually by placing the ad. He is at ease with sex. And the city of Paris is a character as well as a backdrop.
Yet neither She nor He can take that final step into a full relationship in spite of their desire to do so. The way it plays out is painfully real. It is fumbling attempt at love.
The film made me think about the sadness of chances missed and lost opportunities. But maybe, in truth, their relationship had played itself out. She speaks of seeing him on the street some time later and still having feelings for him. But perhaps that is just a little dream that continued to live on in her heart. Maybe they were not meant to be together forever but as a pathway to something else. Or maybe it was just tragic and they should have stayed together for their one chance at happy-after-after.
Are we supposed to know?
“An Affair of Love” is a beautiful snapshot, in the slice of life genre that French filmmakers do so well. I do not believe this film could have been made in the U.S. mainstream film community.
The film is about real people who handle life in their unique - yet universal - way in the very best manner they can. It should make you think about your own approach to love – and communication.
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