The beginning of the film moves as fast as Anaïs speaks. An early line is, “You advance like a bulldozer,” which is an apt description both for Anaïs and the film, Anaïs in Love by writer/director Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet, itself.
Anaïs (played by Anaïs Demoustier) is constantly running around with her bicycle even though I don’t think we ever see her ride it. Her running alongside it, forcing it into buildings, while talking rapidly very quickly established her character as being someone on the move, but on a chaotic path. For French speakers, this film will probably be easier to follow as her rapid dialogue makes for a difficult subtitle read. Though, it gets easier as the film progresses.
Near the beginning of Anaïs in Love, she ends her lingering relationship with Raoul (played by Christophe Montenez) while telling him she’s getting an abortion. He tells her he loves her (does he or is he just trying to convince her to keep the baby?) and they kiss, then it quickly transitions to a sex scene. Because of the way it’s filmed, initially you could mistake the man for Raoul and believe she decided to stay with him, but the angle changes to reveal it’s Daniel (played by Denis Podalydès), an older man, a publisher, she met at the beginning of the film. Daniel who’s in a relationship with Emilie, who we will meet later.
After her fire alarm goes off when instead of just turning it off, she breaks it (a Chekov’s gun of sorts), she establishes that she doesn’t like the actual act of sleeping next to another person. She wondered aloud in the first scene of the movie when she was being given the smoke detector by her landlord (and being asked for her past due rent) about her ability to love.
We meet her family and they seem to have money, while she can’t pay her rent, which helps to firmly set her as a current 30-something, over-educated (she’s working on her thesis), and underemployed. She finds out her mother is having a relapse of cancer. This is an impetus, a ticking clock, which for a girl always running through life, is more of a call to action.
It’s here that she gets her first glimpse of Emilie, only in a painting, and not even of her face, but she is already captivated. When she meets Emilie (played by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) by chance on the street, she drops everything to pursue Emilie, after Emilie pays her a compliment.
It’s clear from Anaïs and Emilie’s early interactions that they share a mutual attraction. When Emilie shares a story about her past and the teacher that got her into writing, she reveals that she had a crush on her. But she gives it a qualifier, “the way you do at that age.” There is this tendency to do that with same-sex attraction, to qualify it, to dismiss it, to diminish its significance. On the flip side, Anaïs never questions her attraction and desire for Emilie, which may be the director’s take on the differences of their generation’s acceptance of queer identity.
The song “Bette Davis Eyes” is used to great effect when it looks like Emilie is going to cross the line and fall for Anaïs barely vailed pursuit, but their dance is broken up by the arrival of Daniel.
Daniel thinks Anaïs is there for him, completely oblivious to Anaïs flirting with Emilie right in front of him. Then a fire happens at her apartment (aka the payoff of everything that’s been set up with that) which she sublet to a Korean couple, and her fire alarm didn’t go off because she broke it. She has to go back to Paris. Daniel agrees to drive her but as he drops her off at the train station, he tells her to stay away from him and Emilie. She returns that night, claiming to have handled the problem, but whether she actually did or not isn’t shown, because her focus at this point is still fully on Emilie, and so is ours.
After Daniel finally leaves, Anaïs FINALLY gets her moment with Emilie and they kiss. The story and performance did a good job of capturing the whirlwind of their attraction. Both Anaïs bulldozer of her life in pursuit and Emilie’s reluctance but undeniable pull. This is the kind of thing that can only be accomplished with the right conjunction of performers, which this film has.
The film advances time while they write letters, and Anaïs spends time with her mother, until they can meet up again in person.
Anaïs in Love is not a film about them becoming a couple. It’s a film about a 30-something trying to find love and purpose in life and avoid the threat of mortality that she’s been made aware of due to her mother’s sickness.
Anaïs in Love premiered at Cannes as part of Critics Week and Magnolia Pictures has acquired U.S. distribution rights.
© 2021. UniversalCinema Mag.