An Affair of Love (1999)

"Une liaison pornographique" is a entertaining movie, but its beginning promises much more of what it finally delivers.I liked the performances of Nathalie Baye and Sergi López, and the topic of the movie but I think with a better script this would have been a great movie.The plot of the movie is about two people Nathalie Baye and Sergi López who meet frequently only to have sex without knowing anything else about each other like the name, profession, phone number, address etc. During the movie we can see to each one of them talking to the camera about what they thought about this kind of relationship that they had.

From its title, A Pornographic Affair might seem like the kind of film that might appeal to a 13-yr old boy just entering puberty. Its actually a very restrained and beautiful love story. The format of the narrative is in the form of interviews of Him and Her after the affair has ended. There is a mysterious fantasy which brought them together. We never find out, despite the interviewers repeated prodding, what that fantasy was that led Her to advertise and Him to read and respond to the advertisement.Inevitably, the physical aspects of that fantasy don't matter because the two eventually move on to more conventional forms of sexual activity. Neither knows anything about the other - children, marital status, profession or age. Both are good people and inevitably the affair has to develop into something more. Both are charming and beautiful in their own way. Eventually they begin to like and be infatuated with each other.Obviously, adult themes are explored in this film, but there is no gratuitous nudity or smut. It has a surprisingly human touch even though the route followed in a conventional relationship is inverted here.

Her (Nathalie Baye) places an ad in a magazine looking for a sexual partner to share her fantasy. He (Sergi Lopez) responds. They meet in a bistro on a gray afternoon in Paris and proceed to a nearby hotel. Their coupling is verysatisfactory to them and they proceed to other encounters. All this is told in flashback with both speaking separately, and wistfully about what happenedand how it ended. This is a fascinating story, appealingly told with sureness by director Frederic Foteyne and his attractive, expressive leads. Yes, their affair is casual, sexual and without the usual "meeting cute" baggage. Actually, I thought she was the engine that began and ended the affair. Lopez's character seems to be far more emotionally involved as the affair progress than Baye's. He responds to herresponding to him and you can see him falling for her. Her speech to him about her feelings is quite startling and you think, maybe he's going to seek hercommitment. A happy ending, though this is not one of those silly tearjerkers where you sit there embarrassed, would have been wrong and it's very satisfying. I loved this small, quiet, movie. The sex is very discreet. The dialoge is direct and thank goodness this is not a wordy movie. It doesn't need it. It's got a very good director in control of his material and two fine leads who tell you all you need to know. I just discovered Sergi Lopez was the villain in DIRTY PRETTY THINGS. He's a terrific screen presence. Someone mentioned CHAOS (in connection with their review of this film),another French film I recently discovered. Two more mature, well-written, well- acted and directed films could not be imagined. Highly recommended.

While Last Tango in Paris was full of passion and lust, An Affair of Love is full of talk and thinking. While Brando brought us into the bedroom for most of the movie, the audience in Affair of Love is left outside, in the hallway for most of the story. We are not allowed into the hearts of the two lovers until far into the movie. As for nudity and the act of love, Last Tango had no shame of crossing the line and showing the powerful image of passion. An Affair of Love is more of an affair of teasing and thinking. The characters in this movie spend a great deal in deep though and at most times speechless. It is one of the better elements of the movie, still, it lacks passion and the lust that Tango in Paris gave its audience. At times, the movie is honest and deep into the situation that the characters are living, but it lacks the true grit of love that is mentioned in the movie's title.