After Love

This film screens as part of Pix Rendez-Vous. The section is a collaboration between Oslo Pix and Institut Français, and includes nine French titles at this year’s programme. It is a continuation of the festival Rendez-Vous with French film, which for many years has presented the remarkable quality of contemporary French cinema to a Norwegian audience.

Letting go of love is never easy. Joachim Lafosse shows us how heartbreaking and difficult splitting up can be: not only because of the strong feelings involved, but because of economy and small banal details always seem to complicate matters. Marie and Boris, brilliantly played by Bérénice Bejo and Cédric Kahn, are heading for divorce after 15 years of marriage. Their two daughters struggle to make sense of why their parents are acting so differently towards each other. Marie is the sole owner of the attractive apartment they live in, which does not make things easier, especially since Boris is not financially independent enough to move out. That his mother decides to involve herself becomes yet another frustration for Marie. A chamber piece set solely in the couple’s apartment, After Love masterfully depicts the complicated dynamics of a relationship coming to an end. It moves from the painful almost hateful feelings, through a form of meditative indifference, to a sudden tenderness that reveals why Boris and Marie loved each other in the first place. MWV

Joachim Lafosse (b. 1975) is a Belgian director and screenwriter. After several critically acclaimed films that has circulated on festivals around the world, he reached worldwide acclaim as up-and-coming European directors with Our Children in 2012. The film was in the prestigious Un Certain Regard section during the film festival in Cannes that same year, where it won an award for Best Actress.