The Nature of Love | |
---|---|
French | Simple comme Sylvain |
Directed by | Monia Chokri |
Written by | Monia Chokri |
Produced by | Nancy Grant Sylvain Corbeil |
Starring | Magalie Lépine-Blondeau Pierre-Yves Cardinal |
Cinematography | André Turpin |
Edited by | Pauline Gaillard |
Music by | Émile Sornin |
Production company | Metafilms |
Distributed by | MK2 Films |
Release date | |
Running time | 112 minutes [2] |
Country | Canada |
Language | French |
Box office | $2.4 million [3] |
The Nature of Love (French : Simple comme Sylvain) is a 2023 Canadian romantic comedy-drama film directed by Monia Chokri. [4]
The film had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2023. [1] [5]
University professor Sophia has a comfortable life and a stable but unexciting marriage to Xavier. That is upended when she meets and is attracted to Sylvain, a blue-collar construction contractor whom the couple hires to renovate their summer home. [6]
Production on the film was first announced in fall 2022. [7]
The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2023. [1] [4]
Catherine Bray of Variety praised the film, writing that "The film is impeccably cast. As Sophia, Magalie Lépine Blondeau (whom Chokri first directed ten years ago in her hugely successful short An Extraordinary Person ) is wonderful, gifted with great comic timing and a particular knack for telegraphing that sense of someone who knows they’re making a huge mistake, but are compelled to go ahead and make it anyway. That’s handy, since it is perhaps the character’s defining trait. But it’s hard to imagine Blondeau’s role working as well as it does without the right actor as Sylvain, the kind of guy whose compulsive sexual charm is enough, by itself, to swamp every other more cautious instinct. Luckily, Cardinal has form here, having previously sizzled in Xavier Dolan’s Tom at the Farm , as the burly agricultural man’s man to Dolan’s fashionable city boy. Call it screen presence, magnetism, charisma — Cardinal has it." [8]
Savina Petkova of Cineuropa wrote that "Even if The Nature of Love can’t shake off the pessimistic thought that all instances of a heterosexual, monogamous love life are doomed to repeat the same cycle of infatuation/marriage/depletion of desire, it offers a special, nuanced take on love and what love can be. It even suggests a canon of studies on romance – a topic equally neglected in philosophy and ethics – with quotes by the likes of Plato, bell hooks and Vladimir Jankélévitch, but without being didactic in any way. Overall, Chokri’s new film is as confident as its protagonist, a woman who knows how to articulate her desires, to surrender and to leave them behind, when it feels right.” [9]
Maxance Vincent of InSession Film wrote that the movie is "one of the funniest and most heartbreaking movies you’ll see all year, and it cements Chokri as one to watch as a daring auteur who never made the same film twice and will seemingly continue pushing the boundaries of what modern Québec cinema can – and should – be." [10]
Sophie Desmarais is a Canadian actress, best known for her role in the 2013 film Sarah Prefers to Run , written and directed by Chloé Robichaud.
Heartbeats is a 2010 Canadian romantic drama film written, directed and edited by Xavier Dolan. It follows the story of two friends who both fall in love with the same man. It premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.
Laurence Anyways is a 2012 Canadian epic romantic drama film written, directed and edited by Xavier Dolan. The film competed in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival where Suzanne Clément won the Un Certain Regard Award for Best Actress. Laurence Anyways also won the Queer Palm Award at the festival.
Fan Club is a Quebec television series broadcast on the specialized VRAK.TV youth channel.
Monia Chokri is a Canadian actress and filmmaker.
Pierre-Yves Cardinal is a Canadian film and television actor from Quebec. He is most noted for his role as Francis in Xavier Dolan's Tom at the Farm, for which he received a Canadian Screen Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor at the 2nd Canadian Screen Awards, and won a Jutra Award as Best Supporting Actor at the 17th Jutra Awards.
A Brother's Love is a 2019 Canadian comedy-drama film written and directed by Monia Chokri. It had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. It was released theatrically in Canada on 7 June 2019 by Les Films Séville.
An Extraordinary Person is a Canadian short drama film, directed by Monia Chokri and released in 2013. The film stars Magalie Lépine-Blondeau as Sarah, a brilliant academic who suffers from severe social anxiety but must cope with seeing many old friends at her colleague's engagement party. The film's cast also includes Anne Dorval, Sophie Cadieux, Evelyne Brochu, Anne-Élisabeth Bossé, Laurence Leboeuf, Marilyn Castonguay and Anne-Marie Cadieux.
Magalie Lépine-Blondeau is a Canadian actress and television host.
The Prix Iris for Best Editing is an annual film award presented by Québec Cinéma as part of the Prix Iris awards program, to honour the year's best film editing in the Cinema of Quebec.
The Prix Iris for Most Successful Film Outside Quebec is an annual film award presented by Québec Cinéma as part of the Prix Iris awards program, to honour films made within the Cinema of Quebec which have had significant success beyond the province, both in English Canada and internationally.
9 is a 2016 Canadian comedy-drama film. Adapted from Stéphane E. Roy's theatrical play 9 Variations on the Void , the film is an anthology of nine short films by nine different film directors on the theme of communication difficulties, unified by the common narrative element of a conference on communication by self-help guru Marc Gélinas. Segments were directed by Roy, Claude Brie, Érik Canuel, Jean-Philippe Duval, Marc Labrèche, Micheline Lanctôt, Luc Picard, Éric Tessier and Ricardo Trogi.
Love Project is a Canadian drama film, directed by Carole Laure and released in 2014. An ensemble drama, the film focuses on the professional and personal lives of a group of young theatre professionals who are working to produce a multimedia stage play.
Babysitter is a 2022 Canadian comedy-drama film, directed by Monia Chokri. Adapted from a theatrical play by Catherine Léger, the film stars Patrick Hivon as Cédric, a man who goes viral after video surfaces of him drunkenly kissing a reporter during a live broadcast. Meanwhile, his wife Nadine (Chokri) is struggling with post-partum depression following the birth of their child. Cédric hires a babysitter to take care of the baby, to the surprise of Nadine, with whom she eventually develops her own special relationship.
Falcon Lake is a 2022 coming-of-age drama film, directed and co-written by Charlotte Le Bon. Adapted from the graphic novel Une sœur by Bastien Vivès, the film stars Joseph Engel as Bastien, a 13-year-old boy from Paris, France, on a family vacation in Quebec, where he meets and develops a relationship with Chloé, the 16-year-old daughter of his mother's friend Louise.
The Night Logan Woke Up is a Canadian thriller drama limited television series, directed by Xavier Dolan and released in 2022. Adapted from the theatrical play La nuit où Laurier Gaudreault s'est réveillé by Michel Marc Bouchard, the series centres on the Larouches, a family in Val-des-Chutes, Quebec, who are coping with the death of family matriarch Madeleine.
Atikamekw Suns is a 2023 Canadian drama film, written, produced, and directed by Chloé Leriche. The film centres on the true story of five youths from the Atikamekw First Nation community of Manawan who were found dead in a truck in the nearby river in 1977, with police investigation remaining inconclusive to this day about whether the truck driving into the river was a simple accident or a racially-motivated attack.