“At the beginning, Etienne is twenty. He suspects nothing.” Those narrated words kick off the dazzling five-minute opening sequence of Erwan Le Duc’s heart-on-sleeve No Love Lost in which Etienne (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) meets Valérie (Mercedes Dassy) in the middle of a protest, where together they slip out of the clutches of the cops, fall in love, have sex the same night, and nine months later welcome a child into the world. Then one day Valérie drives off without a word, leaving him and the baby, never to return. In this stylish and swoony Critics’ Week Closing Film, Etienne is about to learn that life’s unsuspecting surprises aren’t just for the young.
If first love is a quickly struck flame, the search for closure is a door that never shuts. We jump ahead sixteen years and Etienne has seemingly put his past behind him. “You can’t love someone absent…you give up on that love, and it vanishes,” he declares. It’s a mantra that’s set to be challenged as his daughter Rosa (Céleste Brunnquelle) is preparing for college, while Etienne looks ready to settle down with Hélene (Maud Wyler). But when a faint, wholly unexpected opportunity arises to reconnect with Valérie, the past comes racing back to the present forcing him to face feelings he’s shelved but never fully reconciled with.
Whimsically directed by Le Duc, and recalling the playful work of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Michel Gondry, No Love Lost is a film that never stays still. The filmmaker loves keeping the bodies of his cast in motion, particularly the lanky Biscayart, whose physical adroitness is just as light as the film’s airy tone. The production design is equally sprightly, with rooms boasting primary colors and pastels that run in parallel with costume designer Élisa Ingrassia’s tie dyes and patterns. There’s also bit of Jacques Tati in some of the film’s staging, with physical gags often playing alongside the film’s gossamer one-liners. Bringing it all together is the twinkling score by Julie Roué that’s both jewel-box delicate but substantive enough to feel like the film could burst into a musical at any moment. Particularly in the early stages of No Love Lost it feels like that’s very much a possibility.
Keeping the picture from spinning into high calorie cotton candy is the finely drawn, grounded relationship between Etienne and Rosa. In the wake of Valérie’s vanishing act, Etienne has focused almost entirely on his daughter, who has no lasting memory of her mother. But as she enters adulthood and navigates her first significant relationship with dans la lune poet Youssef (Mohammed Louridi), Etienne prepares to face an empty nest for the first time and the newly renewed memory of Valérie. It’s first love versus lost love, unexpected changes and uncertain futures, and as Etienne and Rosa get ready for these new phases, they become protective of each other. Letting go draws them closer together even if they must, at some point, figure out how to move forward apart.
As No Love Lost shifts into in its more earthbound final act, the picture becomes slightly unmoored with its shifting and conflicting tones, only to recover with an utterly charming closing gesture of grand romance. There is nothing small or cynical about Erwan Le Duc’s film, one that firmly believes that there are no half measures in life. Passion, poetry, activism, art — they can only flourish with a commitment that is unbound. After all, you can’t lose anything without risking everything.
Director: Erwan Le Duc
Screenplay: Erwan Le Duc
Cast: Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Céleste Brunnquell, Maud Wyler, Mohammed Louridi, Mercedes Dassy
Producers: Stéphanie Bermann, Alexis Dulguerian
Cinematography: Alexis Kavyrchine
Production design: Astrid Tonnellier
Costume design: Élisa Ingrassia
Editing: Julie Dupré
Music: Julie Roué
Sound: Mathieu Descamps, Matthieu Gasnier, Jules Laurin, Vincent Cosson
Production companies: Domino Films (France)
World sales: Playtime
Venue: Cannes Critics’ Week (Closing Film)
In French
91 minutes
