THE NAMES OF LOVE (Michel Leclerc). 99 minutes. Subtitled. Opens Friday (July 1). See listing. Rating: NNN
Even if it often feels earnest and cloying, rom-com The Names Of Love still proves the French can frequently do genre film better than Hollywood. Where else would the female lead march completely naked onto public transit only to come face-to-face with a burqa-clad Muslim? The scene is controversial, but it’s perfectly of a piece with the film and its main character.
Sara Forestier stars as the sexually radical Baya Benmahmoud, the daughter of a French hippie mother and Algerian refugee father. Quick to call anyone who steers slightly away from her far-left-leaning politics a fascist, Baya takes it upon herself to sleep with the enemy. Apparently, she’s discovered a way to convert racists and Muslim extremists before they climax.
She’s the cartoonish antidote to Arthur Martin (Jacques Gamblin), whose typical French name and square looks disguise the fact that his mother is a Holocaust survivor. Their winning liaison opens the door to debates on contemporary relationships between the French, Algerians and Jews.
While the film lightly satirizes obsessive non-conformists like Baya, it ends up being just as resolutely unconventional, using direct address and other gimmicks to distinguish itself as something other than a rom-com. For the most part it works.
