An Affair of Love

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.

An ad in the paper with a specific sexual fantasy asked for. A meeting of 2 strangers, who remain so both to us and to each other. A subtle deepening of feelings for each other...this movie is so delicate it is like gossamer. Nuances of looks, smiles, movement. "Elle" winds up a little harder, "lui" a little softer. I was spellbound by it. Recommend it to those who like their movies to stay with them for a while. Great acting and direction.

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 very

satisfactory to them and they proceed to other encounters. All this is told in flashback with both speaking separately, and wistfully about what happened

and 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 her

responding 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 her

commitment.

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.

Une liaison pornographique can trace its textual roots to another tri-national production made over 25 years ago called "Last Tango In Paris" in which an Italian director (Bernardo Bertolucci) used Paris as a backdrop to explore the possibilities of sex as identity in a highly dysfunctional relationship. Now Belgium director Frederic Fonteyne uses Paris to explore the lives of two people who define their relationship initially as nothing but physical gratification. Their knowledge of each other's lives is minimal at best recalling Marlon Brando's demand of his partner in Last Tango that he wanted to know nothing of his female cohort thereby defining the relationship through a mutual ignorance. But where that film ceaselessly rotated around Brando's sulleness, une liason pornographique succeeds as a mature and thoughtful meditation on the nature of relationships and how healthy sex can actually serve as a positive introduction into understanding emotional complexities and thereby underscoring the irony of the title of the film. A finely tuned performance from French acting veteran Nathalie Baye, who at the age of 52, communicates an unforgettable sexual and sensual presence throughout the film complimented by intelligent and accesible dialogue make une liaison pornographique a truly good film and while its characters do not escape sadness, the emotions and ideas that are communicated honour the film's creators and their audience. Highly recommended

This little movie is simply sublime. I ran across it again when searching for more Sergi Lopez films. His range is simply amazing, from sensitive fantasy lover (as in this film) to the most dastardly twisted villain. I would be hard-pressed to think of any more talented male actor in European film today. I particularly liked him in "Dirty Pretty Things", due to its serious, thoughtful treatment of the pressures on immigrants. "A Friend Like Harry" was just great entertainment, humor of the darkest sort.

"Une Liason Pornografique" is still another type of film altogether. The French produce many interesting films on sex, some successful, some less so. This is of the best I can recall from my own 20-year love affair with European art films. Another recent French film that I can whole-heartedly recommend is Coline Serreau's Chaos, which took several years to cross the ocean to the U.S., but was originally released in 2001. Also Chocolat by Claire Denys, another quiet but piercingly accurate character study.