What are they doing in there… and can I join in?
A man and a woman meet through a personal ad and agree to a sexual liaison every Thursday afternoon where they are free to explore a specific fetish with one another. Will their feelings get in the way or will they allow themselves to disassociate those feelings from the intimacy? That is the dilemma in “An Affair of Love” (Une liaison pornographique)
Lopez and Baye find these characters with pinpoint accuracy as they weave in and out of a very strange situation. They both teeter their emotions on the edge of love without actually falling. These are the kinds of performances that should surely be recognized at the Oscars if it weren’t for the fact that filthy foreigners aren’t welcome to win those awards too often. It is a shame really because these two deserve praise.
This is a beautiful film of need and desire between two lonely adults. They dare to say to each other the things that most of us fear to admit… but they cannot confess the simplest thing of all, their love for one another. This is a French film that deserves more exposure than it will ultimately get, but if you can find it… watch it.
Roger Ebert said of this film..”it is, quite simply, one of the most absorbing, tantalizing and intelligent movies I’ve ever seen about sex.” …and I cannot agree more!
