C’est ca l’amour (2018)

Directed by: Claire Burger | 98 minutes | comedy, drama | Actors: Bouli Lanners, Justine Lacroix, Sarah Henochsberg, Cécile Rémy-Boutang, Antonia Buresi, Célia Mayer, Lorenzo Demanget, Tiago Gandra, Laure Ballarin, Jean-Claude Acquaviva, François Aragni, Paul Giansily

‘C’est ça l’amour’ is a calm, dragging actor’s film, with Bouli Lanners at the heart of it. This Walloon teddy bear (including ‘Rien à déclarer’) has the right physique to play a man who drags himself through life. So far okay, but not enough. You will see this immediately; you have instant sympathy for the character Mario, a divorced man with two teenage daughters living at home. Playing someone like that can put heavyweight Lanners on autopilot.

Although Claire Burger sticks to atmospheric drawing for a long time, she still manages to switch up every now and then. A beautiful scene halfway through, in which Mario drinks from street prostitution under a soundtrack with opera music, is striking and subtle. The longing for shadows of happiness, giving up anyway for the simple reason that the lady in question is not beautiful enough, resignation when she reacts aggressively to his rejection. This scene instantly reflects the emptiness of a loveless life.

Loveless, because the relationship with children cannot be completely reciprocal; empty because paid sex is just a physical transaction; resigned because a middle-aged man has long known that he chases shadows. But doing nothing is even worse. Mario and the teens’ lethargy is cumulative, and Mario’s loneliness is touching at times, especially when he needs care of his own. Burger keeps pace, also in the typical horror that teenagers can have for their parents; Mario remains an ‘everyman’, and the girls need him.

That is comforting, but also a prison. Being unhappy is ugly anyway and we think it should look like that. Romance is of no use to us if it is lacking, and neither is the viewer. A good director ensures that the privileged viewer is unhappy with Mario for an hour and a half and recognizes his basic emotions. Burger does that adequately; Although the role-playing at the end is a bit theatrical, it still gets romantic.