Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno (2017)

Directed by: Abdellatif Kechiche | 175 minutes | drama, romance | Actors: Shaïn Boumedine, Ophélie Bau, Salim Kechiouche, Lou Luttiau, Alexia Chardard, Hafsia Herzi, Delinda Kechiche, Kamel Saadi, Hatika Karaoui, Meleinda Elasfour, Hamid Rahmi, Roméo De Lacour, Karina Kolokolchykova, Mohamed Souda, David Bouchaliiro Zemour, Thomas Fessard, Sieme Miladi, Christophe Brodu, Charlotte Jude

It is a bold cliché that Dutch filmmakers are always guilty of exploiting (female) nudes. It may perhaps serve as an explanation for the fact that the French LGBT love drama ‘La vie d’Adèle’ caused relatively less controversy here than in other countries; maybe we’re just used to a less prudish attitude here. The storm of criticism that director Abdellatif Kechiche received on ‘La vie d’Adèle’ hardly bothers him in his latest film ‘Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno’. Once again the sensuality is palpable in almost every scene and once again Kechiche lets a slightly obsessive urge for voyeurism seep through.

Prude movie buffs who have the illusion that the director is holding back in his latest work will be disappointed after only two minutes, when Kechiche takes plenty of time to view a steamy sex scene through the eyes of lead actor Amin (the excellent debut Shaïn Boumedine). Amin, a starting photographer and filmmaker, visits his childhood friend Ophélie (Ophélie Bau in an impressive debut role) in the southern French seaside resort of Sète in the summer of 1994, after which a light-hearted love drama develops.

As a somewhat prudish adolescent, Amin whirls through the seaside town, which is populated by beautiful and perfect young women. It has long been clear to the viewer that Ophélie is the woman of his dreams, but that love is hardly reciprocated here. The plot is little more than that: ‘Mektoub, My Love’ is above all a summer ode to lightly budding love and short-lived affairs.

Yet ‘Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno’ is a lot less excellent than the beautiful and painful ‘La vie d’Adèle’. Although the film has a pleasantly brooding atmosphere, Kechiche hardly knows how to match the level of his previous film. ‘Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno’ can mainly be read as an ode to carefree puppy love, but it is too long-winded and just too small (no pun intended) to keep up with you. Now ‘La Vie D’Adèle’ was certainly not a quick snack, but that film did manage to nail the viewer to the screen for three hours. ‘Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno’ is too flat and averse to plot to pull that off.

What also does not help is that Kechiche extends his voyeurism very far in this film (and thus again raises a middle finger to his critics). This is mainly expressed in the almost compulsive obsession Kechiche has with the behinds of the women in the film (just look at the opening scene and especially the finale). It already earned him a storm of criticism in Cannes. Now the French press has been done with the director for some time, where actress Léa Seydoux lashed out at Kechiche, who is said to have forced the leading women from ‘La vie D’Adèle’ into endless sex scenes. He felt that his reputation as a director in France was tarnished forever after this.

The director previously stated in an interview that the main character in this film mainly functions as his alter ego. In itself an interesting fact, but unfortunately Amin never becomes a very interesting character. To make a final comparison with ‘La Vie D’Adèle’: in that film it was mainly the leading women who sucked the viewer into the story.

Yet it is too short-sighted to call ‘Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno’ a complete failure. Voyeurism is rampant and that makes ‘Mektoub, My Love’ an attractive yet exhausting film. The long running time (almost three hours) is totally unjustified: characters and plot simply have too little fat around the bones. All in all, it is a well-made film, in which Kechiche can use his talent at times.

Whether the already announced sequel to ‘Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno’ is something we are waiting for seems doubtful. When Kechiche abandons his slightly obsessive urge for feminine beauty and eroticism in his next project and cares a little more about his characters, the Franco-Tunisian director remains someone whose work you keep looking forward to. In France, Kechiche is no longer popular due to the controversy surrounding ‘La vie d’Adèle’, but here he is given the benefit of the doubt for the time being.