After being presented in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, Gilles Lellouche’s latest film is released in cinemas this Wednesday, October 16.
French productions are on the rise in 2024. After the crazy success ofA little something extra And The Count of Monte Cristoanother French achievement is impatiently awaited. This Sunday, October 13, the preview of phew lovelatest achievement of Gilles Lellouche after the success of Great Bathin Lilles and broadcast throughout France, was emulated.
A few months earlier, it was on the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival that the team paraded to present this punchy romantic drama for the first time. After intense promotion on all French television sets and radio stations, phew love is released this Wednesday, October 16 throughout France. And if the film divided critics at Cannes, the public is eagerly awaiting it… But for what reasons?
Because it’s a project that took a long time to see the light of day
phew love is a film that Gilles Lellouche has wanted to direct for over 15 years. It was Benoît Poelvoorde who offered him the novel by the Irish writer Neville Thompson, Jackie Loves Johnser Okay? published in 1997, advising him to make a film of it. For years, Gilles Lellouche tried to make it an “ultra violent romantic comedy”, but the project was delayed. Finally, after the success of Great Bathfirst comedy directed by Gilles Lellouche, phew love is announced on the sidelines of the 2021 Cannes festival. We will have to wait three more years before the film is released in cinemas, the director writing the screenplay jointly with Audrey Diwan (The event, Emmanuelle…).
Because it’s a passionate love story
As its name suggests, phew love recounts an epic love story as only cinema can tell. It is the passionate love story between Jackie and Clotaire. They met as teenagers, in the 1980s in the North of France. While their social origins oppose them, they fall madly in love with each other. But when Clotaire is accused of committing a crime, he is sentenced to spend twelve years in prison and loses Jackie. When he leaves, aged 27, he is determined to win back the one he loves and make up for lost time.
Added to this novelistic and romantic scenario, the rumors of true romance between the two stars of the film (which annoy the two main interested parties who refuse to respond to them during the promo), it was enough to tickle curiosity.
Because there is a dream cast
phew loveit’s also a completely amazing casting. If Gilles Lellouche works “only” in directing and does not appear as an actor in the film, he has gathered around him the biggest names of the moment. François Civil (The three musketeers) And Adèle Exarchopoulos (Adèle’s life, I will always see your faces) play the two lovers as adults, when they are Mallory Wanecque (The Worst) and Malik Frikah (Apaches) who embody their adolescent versions. Around them, a myriad of supporting roles evolve: Alain Chabat (The city of fear), Benoît Poelvoorde (It happened near you, Podium), Vincent Lacoste (Lost illusions, Hippocrates), Jean-Pascal Zadi (Simply black, in place), Elodie Bouchez (I will always see your faces), Karim Leklou (BAC Nord, The world is yours), Raphaël Quenard (Yannick) and Anthony Bajon (Prayer) all come to respond to the protagonists.
Because it’s a big budget film
For phew loveGilles Lellouche saw things in a very big way: romantic drama, gangster film, ultra-violent scenes punctuated by dance scenes, reconstruction of the 1980s and 1990s, hits (The Bure, Prince…), direction slick and impactful photography… The disappointed press denounced a “catch-all” at the Cannes Film Festival, forcing Gilles Lellouche to partially revise his copy (the film is cut by 20 minutes compared to the version projected on the Croisette, teaches us The Parisian). As a result, filming took several months, many sets were used, and the team was expanded to 90 people. So much so that, according to the CNC, the film would have cost 35.7 million euros… Big budgets, therefore big expectations.
Because the critics don’t completely agree
A film that divides critics often arouses curiosity. For phew lovediscovered for the first time at the Cannes Film Festival, critics praised Lellouche’s cinematic gesture, criticizing him for sometimes doing too much. No one completely agrees: “vibrant and ultra-romantic” for Le Parisien, which however denounces the film’s “complacent violence”, “Gilles Lellouche hits rock bottom” for Les inrocks. “Exhausting catch-all” for Télérama, it is also “a very long, violently sentimental melodrama” for Le Point. “Whew to watch” even if his love story made of violence and dependence “does not make you dream” for The Huffington Post, “Gilles Lellouche signs a film whose generosity sometimes plays tricks on him”. This did not prevent the film from receiving a 15-minute standing ovation at its Cannes premiere, a record for this edition… But to leave empty-handed. Whatever happens, and as always with cinema, it is the public who will ultimately have the last word.
Synopsis – The 80s, in the north of France. Jackie and Clotaire grew up between the high school benches and the port docks. She studies, he hangs out. And then their destinies intersect and it’s mad love. Life will try to separate them but nothing works, these two are like the two ventricles of the same heart.