Spinal
11-27-2011, 07:30 AM
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Apparently I'm the first person to see this film, as I could find no mention of it on the site. It's fitting, because this is a movie that I watched and felt like it was made just for me. I don't know if I'm up for writing the review that the film deserves. But it really needs a thread. So here it is.
Sara Forestier plays Baya, a free-spirited left-wing political activist who believes in sleeping with her political rivals in order to win them over. Her father is an Algerian who had several family members killed by the occupying French army. Her mother is a feisty anti-Nationalist hippie. Baya is, to put it mildly, a handful. She lives her politics and views her own body as her greatest weapon.
Jacques Gamblin plays Arthur Martin, a kind of French everyman, whose very name is so ordinary that it becomes a running joke. His father also spent time in Algeria, conducting nuclear research. His mother is the daughter of Holocaust victims, though that memory is so painful it cannot be openly discussed. As a result, Arthur has cut himself off from his own Jewishness, his own identity.
Baya and Arthur get together and begin a relationship. Arthur is surprised because, unlike Baya's typical right-wing lovers, he supports the socialist candidate for president. But does he fit the profile a little better than he imagines?
The Names of Love holds the premise that failure to be progressive in life and in politics stems from emotional pain that is deep-seeded and that many of us carry around with us daily. Baya gets herself into trouble because she has no qualms about addressing the root of the problem directly. She ignores boundaries that others put up. And, in the process, opens up unhealed wounds. The question for Arthur is whether or not he will open himself up or continue to live a life of middle class comfort.
The Names of Love is not one of your nitty-gritty European films about sex and politics that put you through the wringer to deliver a message. It's an easy, breezy comedy that is also thoughtful and, when the time is right, moving.
I encourage you to seek it out.
****
Apparently I'm the first person to see this film, as I could find no mention of it on the site. It's fitting, because this is a movie that I watched and felt like it was made just for me. I don't know if I'm up for writing the review that the film deserves. But it really needs a thread. So here it is.
Sara Forestier plays Baya, a free-spirited left-wing political activist who believes in sleeping with her political rivals in order to win them over. Her father is an Algerian who had several family members killed by the occupying French army. Her mother is a feisty anti-Nationalist hippie. Baya is, to put it mildly, a handful. She lives her politics and views her own body as her greatest weapon.
Jacques Gamblin plays Arthur Martin, a kind of French everyman, whose very name is so ordinary that it becomes a running joke. His father also spent time in Algeria, conducting nuclear research. His mother is the daughter of Holocaust victims, though that memory is so painful it cannot be openly discussed. As a result, Arthur has cut himself off from his own Jewishness, his own identity.
Baya and Arthur get together and begin a relationship. Arthur is surprised because, unlike Baya's typical right-wing lovers, he supports the socialist candidate for president. But does he fit the profile a little better than he imagines?
The Names of Love holds the premise that failure to be progressive in life and in politics stems from emotional pain that is deep-seeded and that many of us carry around with us daily. Baya gets herself into trouble because she has no qualms about addressing the root of the problem directly. She ignores boundaries that others put up. And, in the process, opens up unhealed wounds. The question for Arthur is whether or not he will open himself up or continue to live a life of middle class comfort.
The Names of Love is not one of your nitty-gritty European films about sex and politics that put you through the wringer to deliver a message. It's an easy, breezy comedy that is also thoughtful and, when the time is right, moving.
I encourage you to seek it out.
****