L'Amour ouf: what do critics think of the film with François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos ?

“Love is Crazy: What do critics think of the film with François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos?”

Réalisé par : Gilles Lellouche Avec : Adèle Exarchopoulos , François Civil, Mallory Wanecques, Malik Frikah, Alain Chabat , Benoît Poelvoorde Genre : Film romantique Sortie le 16/10/2024 Durée 02h46 2 /5 Donnez votre avis Synopsis Voir la bande-annonce Trouver une séance Vos avis

Gilles Lellouche's latest film is released in theaters this Wednesday, October 16. The critics who were able to discover it at Cannes were very divided.

French productions are on the rise in 2024. After the crazy successes of'A Little Something Extra and The Count of Monte Cristo, another French production is eagerly awaited. After intense promotion on all French television sets and radio stations, L'amour ouf is released this Wednesday, October 16 throughout France. A few months earlier, it was on the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival that the team paraded to present this hard-hitting romantic drama, in which Clotaire and Jackie love each other madly despite their differences, social determinism, and violence.

The public is waitingThe crazy lovefirmly, but for the critics, the Cannes screening, a veritable whirlwind of images and music, was nevertheless a cold shower. Overall, press reviews are quite mixed. Some were carried away by the cinematic gesture, like Premiere, which praises the “generosity” shown by Lellouche, who does a lot, sometimes too much, but who ends up winning over with his sincerity. Le Parisien hails a “vibrant and romantic” film the fiery staging and moving actors (Malik Frikah is unanimously praised for his first role in the cinema), while denouncing the complacency shown by the film with regard to the violence displayed by the protagonist played by François Civil. For Le Huffington Post, if the love story made of violence and dependence depicted “does not make you dream”, the feature film remains “wow” watch".

Mais L'Amour ouf possessed of its many detractors. Tél&eacuterama deplores an ""exhausting hodgepodge". In detail, it is the lack of mastery that the cultural media criticizes and an "ambition that is a little too great for it". Despite “a desire for cinema as sincere as it is flashy”, the director does a lot from a staging point of view and mixes genres, all served by “a very sentimental vision of love”, despite the performances of the acclaimed actors. Les Inrocks is more categorical, considering that the film is “formally bloated and rather nauseating in its subject”. The same goes for Le Point, which believes that “there is too much of everything, like in a big pudding with “disheveled” romanticism that overflows everywhere”.

This did not prevent the film from receiving a 15-minute standing ovation at its first Cannes, a record for this edition… But to leave empty-handed in terms of awards. Whatever happens, and as always with cinema, it is the public who will ultimately have the last word.

17 years of gestation

Love phew is a film that Gilles Lellouche has wanted to direct for over 17 years. It was Benoît Poelvoorde who gave him the novel by the Irish writer Neville Thompson, Jackie Loves Johnser Ok ? published in 1997, advising him to make a film about it. For years, Gilles Lellouche tried to make an “ultra violent romantic comedy” out of it, but the project was delayed. Finally, after the success of Grand Bain, the first comedy directed by Gilles Lellouche, L'amour ouf is announced on the sidelines of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. We will have to wait another three years before the film is released in theaters, with the director writing the screenplay with Audrey Diwan (L'événénement, Emmanuelle…). 

As its name suggests, L'amour ouf traces an epic love story as only cinema can tell, that of Jackie and Clotaire. They met as teenagers, in the 1980s in the North of France. While their social origins opposed them, they fell madly in love with each other. But when Clotaire was accused of committing a crime, he was sentenced to spend twelve years in prison and lost Jackie. Upon his release, aged 27, he was determined to to win back the one he loves and to make up for lost time.

Added to this romantic and romantic scenario, the rumors of a real romance between the two stars of the film (which annoy the two main interested parties who refuse to respond to them in promo), it didn't take more to tickle curiosity.

A dream cast

Love is crazy, it's also a completely crazy cast. If Gilles Lellouche works “only” in the direction and does not appear as an actor in the film, he has gathered around him the biggest names of the moment. François Civil (The Three Musketeers) and Adèle Exarchopoulos (La vie d'Adèle, Je verrai toujours vos visages) play the two lovers as adults, while Mallory Wanecque (Les Pires) and Malik Frikah (Apaches) play their teenage versions. Around them, a myriad of supporting roles evolve: Alain Chabat (The City of Fear), Benoît Poelvoorde (It happened near you, Podium), Vincent Lacoste (Lost Illusions, Hippocrates), Jean-Pascal Zadi (Simply Black, In Place), Elodie Bouchez (I Will Always See Your Faces), Karim Leklou (BAC Nord, The World Is Yours), Raphaël Quenard (Yannick) and Anthony Bajon (Prayer) all come to give the reply to the protagonists.

Big budget

ForLove phew, Gilles Lellouche saw things on a grand scale: romantic drama, gangster film, ultra-violent scenes punctuated by dance scenes, reconstruction of the 1980s and 1990s, hits (The Bure, Prince…), slick staging and impactful photography… The shocking press denounced a “catch-all” at the Cannes Film Festival, forcing Gilles Lellouche to revise his copy in part (the film is cut by 20 minutes compared to the version screened on the Croisette, Le Parisien tells us). As a result, filming takes several months, many sets are used, the crew is expanded to 90 people. So much so that, according to the CNC, the film would have cost 35.7 million euros.

Synopsis – The 80s, in the north of France. Jackie and Clotaire grow up between the benches of the high school and the docks of the port. She studies, he hangs around. And then their destinies cross and it is crazy love. Life will try to separate them but nothing works, these two are like the two ventricles of the same heart.

Romantic film

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• Love phew //VF

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