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Affair of Love, An
Fine Line Features


7.0

based on 23 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 4 votes
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FILM:

Gilles' Wife

MPAA RATING: R for strong sexual content

Starring Nathalie Baye, Sergi López, Jacques Viala, Paul Pavel, and Sylvie Van den Elsen

It began as a purely sexual arrangement between anonymous strangers. Now, some time after it has ended, a woman (Baye) and a man (Lopez) recall their unusual affair in separate interviews. (Fine Line Features)

GENRE(S):	Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Philippe Blasband
DIRECTED BY:	Frédéric Fonteyne
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 23, 2001 Video: January 23, 2001 Theatrical: August 11, 2000
RUNNING TIME:	80 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	France / Switzerland / Belgium / Luxembourg
LANGUAGE(S):	French (with English subtitles)

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Fonteyne edges closer than most to capturing the mysterious rhythms of liaisons -- pornographique, romantique, and otherwise.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

By boiling the characters down to the most basic emotions and eliminating lifestyle-specific idiosyncrasies, we can enter the world of the story with ease.

TNT RoughCut J. Rentilly

A brilliant, haunting film.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

The audience, too, will be sorry to see this fleeting, beautifully made French film end.

Baltimore Sun Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

A passionate, heart-wrenching film that is a must-see for any romantic.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

An extraordinarily perfect little film: A bittersweet drama that explores sexuality and love, and their reverberations across the landscape of human emotions.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It is about the desiring itself, not about what they desire. That makes it more intriguing than if we knew their secret--and sexier.

Time Richard Schickel

This wee, discreet little movie has a certain rueful intelligence about the ways we rather carelessly talk ourselves into love--and out of it as well.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Sophisticated entertainment of the less-is-more school.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Baye and Lopez are excellent, as always.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

This movie really belongs to Baye and Lopez, both so skillful that they almost make you forget that what you're watching is close to a stunt--one oddly evocative of Graham Greene in its doomed romanticism but at times also minimalist to a fault.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Smells much more like real life than the immediate mating that occurs between expensive movie stars on Hollywood soundstages.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

This sweet, pensive gabfest is neither conventionally romantic nor pornographic.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Has the rare distinction of being slight and tragic at the same time.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

A film as romantic as its title.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

A bit of a cop-out, wrapping in wistful sentimentality a failure to acknowledge a connection that is more than epidermal.

Chicago Tribune John Petrakis

Halfway through, it becomes clear that the filmmakers don't know how to end the film.

Film.com Robert Horton

When the film is sexy, it's truly sexy, assuming that you believe sexiness has something to do with the exploration of a connection between people.

TV Guide Ken Fox

This short, gentle film is surprisingly involving.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Ultimately too slight and opaque to inspire much ardor.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

A delicate mood piece that owes much of its languorous charm to the understated intelligence of its two leads.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

A bittersweet duet convincingly, if unexcitingly, performed by Baye and Lopez.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Clearly, this is an affair to forget.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Pat C. gave it a3:
Tries to clean up its act, but just isn't engaging.

Ed S. gave it a10:
Great adult movie.

Le Liason Filmographique De Gilbert Mulroneygateaux gave it an 8:
I'd heard the title "Un Liason Pornographique"...and that scared me away. Then I saw a film on some Satelite Despair-channel or other by the name of "An Affair Of Love" not long ago. And was agog to see it was the same bloody film, with an infinitely better - or at least, non-French friendly - title. It's a good film too - stripping the whole "Love And Sex" idea to its bare essentials and emerging as probably the best film on the subject since "When Harry Met Sally". It's also amusing to think of the countless shiny-foreheaded types who were tricked by the title into thinking it was some sort of Playboy Freeview. Ha!

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Affair of Love, An Fine Line Features

Affair of Love, An
Fine Line Features