Two men and a woman, and two men and a woman
Plus, one man, two women and an entire country in Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos
Did Quebecois film Simple comme Sylvain (The Nature of Love) get a proper cinematic run in Toronto after it was screened at Tiff last year, anybody know? It completely passed me by and the local movie critics too. I have discovered it thanks to a couple of British reviews in the London Times and the Spectator, to coincide with its short UK run. Turns out the director Mona Chokri beat Nolan, Kaurismaki and Wenders for the foreign film Cesar in February this year, aside receiving the 7 minute ovation at the Cannes festival last year. You can now watch it on Crave and the usual streaming platforms, YT, Prime, etc.
How can I describe Sylvain? Imagine Woody Allen as a woman who is making a woman-centred sexy comedy in which the sex scenes aren’t discreetly faded out, and this Woody Allen is (French-)Canadian through and through, we’re talking total terroir, maple syrup, flaming autumnal foliage, cottage by the lake business? There are a lot of conversations between intellectuals and quasi-intellectuals in the film that are positively Allenesque. Chokri’s film is also consciously retro in its intense synth soundtrack, the 1970s fast zoom-ins and warm colours that make everything appear like it’s coming out of the pages of a 70s design magazine. You almost expect Glenda Jackson or Gene Hackman or Blake Edwards in cameos.
I’ve seen it described as a rom-com which it is until the not-a-happily-ever-after-ending, which makes it a dramedy or simply a drama. It is so much about class that it sometimes gets much too on-the-nose about class, but given the dearth of about-class movies in Canada these days, it didn’t bother me.
Sophia (Magalie Lépine Blondeau) is a forever adjunct philosophy professor from an upper middle educated family, partnered for over a decade with Xavier (Francis-William Rhéaume) a tenured poli sci Prof from the same social milieu. They get along wonderfully, share a coherent friends group, “may have children once Sophia is hired full time” and sleep in separate bedrooms. The cottage in the Laurentians that they just bought needs some renovation work, but just how much shocks Sophia after the bearded local bro contractor Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal) explains it to her. They complete the visit with a beer at a local bar, and things proceed from there.