An Affair of Love

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.