Love Blooms [L’amour debout] *** (2019, Paul Delbreil, Adèle Csech, Samuel Fasse) – Classic Movie Review 12,727

Paul Delbreil stars in the 2019 French film Love Blooms [L’amour debout] as would-be film-maker Martin, who comes to meet his tour guide girlfriend Léa (Adèle Csech) in Paris but she suddenly breaks up with him and he meets a couple of guys instead.

Paul Delbreil stars in director Michaël Dacheux’s 2019 French film Love Blooms [L’amour debout] as would-be film-maker Martin, who comes to meet his tour guide girlfriend Léa (Adèle Csech) in Paris in a last hope for love. They are both 25 and it turns out that they have already shared their first love story together, as she suddenly breaks up with him and moves on to the much older musician/ composer Jicé (Jean-Christophe Marti).

Martin moves in with his relatives, then meets an old school friend and moves in with him, sharing his bed. Then he meets another guy, and after having sex, tentatively starts a relationship with him.

There’s much talk of Paris, writers, films, film-makers and the like, in this rather appealing, quietly enchanting French movie. It stays low key and understated throughout, but is enjoyable and even gently impactful, emotionally and intellectually. It all seems very French, so you have to be in the mood and let it sink over you. The characters aren’t particularly likeable or special or memorable in any way, and that seems deliberate, but it gives the actors a tricky time, just mooning around and being tentative. Nothing much happens, but it’s all very interesting anyway.

It might seem like it, but it is not really a gay film at all, but it is very gay friendly, so that’s good then.

Actress Françoise Lebrun and cinematographer Pierre Lhomme (1930-2019) appear as themselves, and very nice that is too, in an homage to French director Jean Eustache. Lebrun starred in Eustache’s La maman et la putain [The Mother and the Whore] (1973) and Lhomme was its cinematographer.

Director: Michaël Dacheux.

Writers: Isabelle Bourdon (adaptation), Michaël Dacheux (adaptation), Michaël Dacheux (screenplay), Emmanuelle Jacob (collaboration) and François Prodromidès (screenplay).

Stars: Paul Delbreil, Adèle Csech, Samuel Fasse.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,727

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