AN AFFAIR OF LOVE (UNE LIAISON PORNOGRAPHIQUE) (Fine Line) Starring: Nathalie Baye, Sergi Lopez. Screenplay: Philippe Blasband. Producers: Patrick Quinet, Rolf Schmid, Claude Waringo. Director: Frederic Fonteyne. MPAA Rating: R (sexual situations, nudity, adult themes) Running Time: 77 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
In the early scenes of AN AFFAIR OF LOVE, two characters appear in documentary-style interview vignettes. In separate one-on-one interviews, an off-camera voice prods an unnamed woman (Nathalie Baye) and man (Sergi Lopez) for information about a relationship that is now clearly some time in the past. As the interviews are cross-cut with scenes from their actual meetings, the two voices turn into something akin to a spoken-word version of "I Remember It Well." They met on-line, she says; they met through a personals ad in a magazine, he says. They exchanged photos, he says; not so, says she. Their first sexual encounter was satisfying, she claims with a smile; a bit disappointing, he recalls. Ah, yes they remember it well.
The hazy recollections and unreliable perceptions could have been played as little more than an amusing conceit, but in AN AFFAIR OF LOVE, they form the backbone for one of the most stunningly rendered sort-of-love stories in recent years. A few things do become more-or-less clear as the story unfolds, despite the differing retrospective accounts. The man and woman initially come together to fulfill a mutual, somewhat unusual sexual fantasy, one that is never explicitly defined. Though the encounter is initially meant to be a one-time, purely physical event, they agree to meet again, and again, until they contemplate a more "normal" sexual encounter. Eventually, each begins to feel that the relationship has more potential, even though they do not know each other's name, or occupation, or anything that, as the woman describes, makes up "what we normally call our lives."
It doesn't take a Francophone to recognize that the French title UNE LIAISON PORNOGRAPHIQUE doesn't exactly translate to AN AFFAIR OF LOVE. Indeed, Fine Line Films' American title proves not only to be an obvious bow to marketing concerns, but a patently absurd take on the development of the relationship. What begins as a pornographic liaison does mutate, but it does not mutate into a love affair. AN AFFAIR OF LOVE is a meditation on what happens to people when they find themselves in a relationship where they feel no pressure to do what they think they should do, because the rules have been discarded from the outset. The man and woman's growing affection builds to a climax that has been telegraphed by the framing structure -- we know they don't end up together -- yet packs a wallop because it's not about whether they will end up together. In fact, the scene is brilliant because it works on two levels: as a tragedy of a relationship that didn't have to end, and as evidence that neither one knew the other in any substantial way.
By all rights, AN AFFAIR OF LOVE should never have worked as anything more than an intellectual exercise, with a little sex thrown in for spice. The characters are defined exclusively within the context of their arm's-length relationship, leaving huge chunks of their lives unexplored. Yet they still emerge as fascinating and complex people, thanks to a subtle script by Philippe Blasband and two remarkable performances. Baye and Lopez play off each other masterfully -- hinting at emotions beneath the surface, capturing awkward moments with a sensitivity that almost forces you to look away. Fonteyne pulls it all together with an unfailing visual sense, and a rhythm that pulls this 77-minute film together without an ounce of flab.
The only time AN AFFAIR OF LOVE feels remotely strained in its presentation involves an episode where the lovers have an encounter with an estranged elderly couple. It's an unnecessarily obvious counterpoint to the fantasy world in which they live, one that spells out what any viewer should understand: that the relationship being explored has nothing to do with the reality of a life together. Fonteyne says more when he's saying less, as he does when he leaves his camera at a distance outside the hotel room door when the lovers are engaged in their mysterious fantasy activity. It is the one moment where the two characters come together in their story; they both respect the privacy and intimacy of the reason they came together in the first place. The irony of Fine Line's title is that it plays to the distorted memories of the characters who, over time, have turned their pornographic affair into an affair of love. Ah, yes they remember it well.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 porn frees: 9.
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