Amour et turbulences (2013)
Directed by Alexandre Castagnetti

Film Review

Is French cinema suffering from an acute bout of Hollywooditis at the moment?  Are French film directors showing too keen a tendency to emulate their cousins across the pond in an increasingly desperate attempt to move with the times?  It is easy to think so, judging by a large segment of France's mainstream output over the past few years.  In 2013, Alexandre Castagnetti's Amour & turbulences (a.k.a. Love Is in the Air) was the most flagrant example of this, a polished, likeable but entirely derivative comedy that feels like an over-stuffed compilation of your favourite American rom-coms.  After Castagnetti's disappointing first feature, L'Incruste (2004), this latest comedy offering certainly has much more crowdpulling appeal but it can hardly be called a model of sparkling originality.  It has Hollywood retread written all over it and you hardly recognise it as a French film at all.

Amour & turbulences may be flawed but it has two massively redeeming assets, in the shape of its two sexy lead performers Ludivine Sagnier and Nicolas Bedos.  Sagnier needs no introduction - suffice it to say she is one of France's most charismastic and well thought of actresses and brings lustre to anything she appears in.  Nicolas Bedos is a comparative newcomer to the big screen and this is his first leading role.  The son of the much-loved French comedian and actor Guy Bedos, he has had a hard time emerging from his father's shadow and it is only recently (at the age of 30) that he has been able to forge a promising career as an actor.

Bedos is perfect casting for the role of the serial philanderer.  He isn't the easiest of personalities to warm to but in a few scenes his performance shows a surprising depth and maturity, even if it is apparent right from the off that the actor's portrayal is a cute parody of himself.  Sagnier and Bedos are a chalk-and-cheese pairing that works remarkably well.  Not only do they have a good on-screen rapport but they each reflect something of the other's inner vulnerability and emotional needs, so that we never for a moment have cause to doubt that Julie and Antoine are made for one another.  Sagnier's remarkable acting prowess and Bedos's primitive gigolo charm make an unbeatable combination - the duo almost deserve their own television series.

In almost every other department the film falls way short of perfection, although most of its shortcomings are of the kind that are readily forgiven in view of the commitment put in on both sides of the camera.  The script is the one thing that could have done with a little more attention.  A protracted prologue holds things up unnecessarily and the main part of the narrative, consisting mostly of hurried flashbacks, feels choppy and uneven.  As likeable as Jonathan Cohen and Clémentine Célarié are, their characters are given too much screen time and provide an unwelcome distraction from the central narrative.  A lack of discipline in the writing department results in a film that is structurally ungainly and at least ten minutes over-long - flaws that might have been fatal had Sagnier and Bedos not been around to save it.

Alexandre Castagnetti's direction is not without flair, a vast improvement on his first film, but is perhaps too self-consciously Hollywood-oriented.  The soundtrack consists of exclusively American blues numbers (from the likes of Esther Phillips and The Trinikas) and the design (including excessive use of split screen and kitschy montage sequences) looks as if it is on a Terminator-style mission to obliterate all traces of French-ness from the film.  You'd almost think that Amour & turbulences is afraid to admit to having been made in France and is doing everything it can to hide the fact.  You wonder why Castagnetti didn't go the whole hog and have all the dialogue in English.

It's an odd thing that so many of today's talented French filmmakers appear incapable of appreciating the unique charms that make French films so attractive to an international audience.  Instead, they bend over backwards to copy the American model, not realising what they sacrifice in doing so.  Mercifully, Amour & turbulences is far from being a complete sell out, but it could have been a whole lot better if Castagnetti had been less inclined to imitate what they do in Tinseltown and instead relied more on that old French magic.

Film Synopsis

Julie, an aspiring young artist, is on a plane from New York to Paris, where she is soon to be married.  By chance, she is upgraded to club class and finds herself sitting next to Antoine, a philandering lawyer with whom she had a passionate love affair three years previously.  Julie knows Antoine too well to want to renew their relationship but Antoine has other ideas.  With seven hours ahead of them before the plane touches down in Paris, Antoine is going to do everything within his power to re-ignite their former romance...