SARA FORESTIER, JAMES THIERÉE IN LOVE BATTLES

Love smacks

On the one hand Jacque Doillon's latest is a remarkable tour de force, in physical terms. On the other hand it's barely more than teasing arthouse porn, a crude series of bump and grind sessions ending in sex as a couple decides they like S&M, or beating up on each other as a prelude to sex, anyway. This is basically a two-hander about a man and woman who can't decide if they want to fight or fuck. "She," a young country woman (Sara Forestier of The Names of Love) has lost her dad. "He" (James Thiérrée, Chaplin grandson and circus acrobat) is temporary caretaker of a comfy nearby house. The pair have strong chemistry, having known each other since way back but never previously gotten it on. They do a lot of talking before the boffing starts. Then when it does, it varies only in location from scene to scene. It's outdoors and indoors, on the floor, on the kitchen table, on the stairway, in a mud puddle, and so on.

Personally, I prefer Jane Austen. If this is the modern age's version of the war between the sexes, I'll go back to Mansfield Park --or, for something French, Choderlos de Laclos. "He" and "She" are exploring sexual roles and emotional conflict in relation to eroticism, presumably. But it all seems halfway between utterly childish and utterly dysfunctional. At best, this pair needs couples therapy -- fast, before things turn outright abusive and dangerous. Unless, that is, this is just a game that goes no deeper and lasts no longer than the work of a filmmaker so glib his last movie came out just two months before this one.

Still, technically, the physical scenes are a bit unusual and seem even a bit risky (more than risqué), since it looks like the specific moves are not carefully planned and they might have hurt each other. Evidently the two performers are thoughtfully selected not just for looks but for both willingness and ability to carry out the fight-fuck transitions. Judging by her boarding a Metro train totally nude in Names of Love and other roles, such as her amour fou turn in Suzanne, Sara Forestier is a risk-taking, blithely over-the-top actress. She can hold one's attention, whatever she's doing. She is also small and light. Thiérrée, being a performance artist and acrobat as well and big and strong, is putatively capable of handling Forestier without hurting her -- though at one point late in the game he bangs her head against the wall three times. They look like they're doing damage to each other, but probably it was fairly safe. But this indeed reduces drama to performance art.

In between "She" has conversations with her sister (Louise Szpindel) at her late father's house and with a friend (Mahault Mollaret) on Skype and in person, but this dialogue is minimal and negligible, except perhaps for her helpfully telling her friend that she's madly in love with "Him" and wants nothing any more but to have sex with him. We might not have guessed. We might have thought she was prepping for kung fu class.

Love Battles/Mes séances de lutte, 99 mins., debuted at Berlin. Upon its 6 November 2013 French release it received generally favorable reviews (Doillon has a following in France) and the Allociné press rating was 3.5. Screened for this review as part of the Unifrance-Film Society of Lincoln Center 6-16 March 2014 series Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. Showings in this series:
Sunday, March 9, 7:30pm – BAM; Monday, March 10, 6:30pm – WRT; Tuesday, March 11, 8:00pm - IFC
In Person: Jacques Doillon

_________________
©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.