Philosophy professor Sophia has been living with her partner Xavier for ten years. Their relationship is intellectually stimulating; however, when she meets rugged carpenter Sylvain, an intense physical chemistry erupts.
Monia Chokri’s fun romantic comedy is an extremely sexy watch – packed with laughs and some razor-sharp truths about desire, social class and co-dependency.
bfi.org.uk
‘Humans destroy to create new things,’ observes Sophia idly at a Montreal dinner party. It’s the faintest batsqueak of warning to the audience that this sweet-natured fortyish lecturer on the philosophy of love, snug in a pleasant, passionless marriage, will find herself sideswiped by a coup de foudre. Monia Chokri’s spiky tale has all the elements of a twinkly Netflix romcom, as Sophia (Magalie Lépine-Blondeau) falls hard and fast for Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), the rugged, beer-swilling contractor renovating her rural lake cabin. But from them she’s fashioned a sharp, sensuous comedy, puzzling over the clash between love and class identity to stitch Sophia and Sylvain’s torrid affair into a pointed social satire.
Chokri carefully picks over the upheaval of Sophia’s tidy, cerebral life, which has been overwhelmed by her delight in their urgent, adulterous couplings. The professionally ethical Sophia can’t reconcile her covert months of feverish backwoods excitement with her loyalty to know-it-all husband Xavier. Cleverly reworking the tropes of the class-crossing romance, the film sidesteps the sentimentality of Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) or the doomy melodrama of contractor-cautionary tale Leaving (2009), focusing on Sophia’s doggedly academic attempts to weigh up a risky new love against her cosy, intellectual home life. Can she pledge herself to a man to whom Michel Sardou’s cheesy lyrics are the last word in love poetry?
Tonally, the film rides a fine if occasionally unsteady line, between celebrating Sophia and Sylvain’s joy in one another, and mocking their utter romcomminess. Swoony retro music cues swell around the couple as they gaze raptly at one another. Giddy autumnal shots skim the lake and russet woods outside Sophia’s Quebec cabin, emphasising the ‘earthy’ and ‘natural’ qualities she finds entrancing in Sylvain. Chokri’s script even sets up a mind-body opposition between Sophia’s chattering-class city life, with its screwball-pace dialogue, and her slow, sex-centred rural idyll with Sylvain. Once they are a legitimate couple, however, the film dedicates itself to the grating mismatch between Sophia’s snobby, bougie circle and Sylvain’s boozy, book-shunning family.
The results are comic, poignant and overworked, but underpinned by fine, increasingly uneasy lead performances. Cardinal’s openhearted Sylvain is far from a cartoon hick, but Lépine-Blondeau injects into her infatuation just the right amount of growing irritation at his uncouthness. Chokri’s readiness to explore love’s endless uncertainties makes for a fresh, thoughtful take, but one ultimately unsure where to land its ruminative romance.
Kate Stables, Sight and Sound, www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound, 1 July 2024
THE NATURE OF LOVE (SIMPLE COMME SYLVAIN)
Directed by: Monia Chokri
©: 9472-3558 Québec Inc., MK Productions
Production Company: Metafilms, MK2 Films
Presented by: Metafilms
In co-production with: MK Productions
In association with: Memento Distribution, MK2 Films
Executive Producer: Philippe Lombart
Produced by: Sylvain Corbeil, Nancy Grant, Nathanaël Karmitz
Producers: Nancy Grant, Sylvain Corbeil, Nathanaël Karmitz, Elisha Karmitz
Associate Producer: Marie-Claire Lalonde
Production Manager Canada: Marie-Claire Lalonde
Production Manager France: Pascal Metge
Production Accountant: Mélanie Bouchard
Post-production Supervisor France: Mélanie Karlin
Post-production Supervisor Canada: Pierre Thériault
1st Assistant Director: Cédrick Kluyskens
Script Supervisor: Nathalie Paquette
Casting Director: Annie St-Pierre
Screenplay: Monia Chokri
Director of Photography: André Turpin
B Camera Operators: Sara Mishara, Pierre Vanier
Special Effects: MFX Productions
Editing: Pauline Gaillard
Assistant Editor: Manon Granet, Clara Chapus
Artistic Conception/Art Direction: Colombe Raby
Assistant Art Director: Charles-Olivier Tremblay
Set Designer: Marc-André Tratch
Set Decorator: Kimberley Thibodeau
Costume Designer: Guillaume Laflamme
Wardrobe Master: Thomas Langlois-Lacoste
Key Make-up Artist: Adriana Verbert
Key Hair Stylists: Ann Lou Landry, Colette Martel
Titles: La Brigade du Titre, Mathieu Decarli
Music/Original Music Composed and Conducted by: Emile Sornin
Piano/Organ/Harpsichord/Celesta/Drums: Emile Sornin
Music Recording: Dragisa Stojanov
Sound: François Grenon, Julien Roig, Olivier Guillaume
Sound Mixer: Jonas Orantin
Dialogue Editor: Simon Poupard
Stunt Co-ordinator: Sébastien Rouleau
Cast
Magalie Lépine-Blondeau (Sophia)
Pierre-Yves Cardinal (Sylvain)
Francis-William Rhéaume (Xavier)
Monia Chokri (Françoise)
Steve Laplante (Philippe)
Marie-Ginette Guay (Sylvie)
Micheline Lanctôt (Madeleine)
Guillaume Laurin (Olivier)
Linda Sorgini (Guylaine)
Mathieu Baron (Kevin)
Christine Beaulieu (Karine)
Lubna Playoust (Joséphine)
Guy Thauvette (Pierre)
Karelle Tremblay (Camélia)
Johanna Toretto (Vanessa)
Kenny Dorvil (Harry)
Jade De Bruto (Sun)
Jordan Arsenault (Drew)
Eve Aubert (bar waitress)
Lila Sofia Houle (Carolane)
Zack Charbonneau (Jayden)
Phil Lauzon (local singer)
Léa Caron (Gisèle)
Clara David (Paloma)
Noam Desbiens-Lépine (Victor)
Dominick Landry (redneck)
Canada-France 2023
111 mins
Digital
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Programme notes and credits compiled by Sight and Sound and the BFI Documentation Unit
Notes may be edited or abridged
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