Diary of a Fleeting Affair

"That said, it is Macaigne who hijacks the narrative in mid stream and profusely piques audience's curiosity and investment. His Simon is a cross section of today's mythopoetic man, rational, sensitive, bristling with cute foibles that can harm no one but embarrass himself, and Macaigne is a ball of neurosis, a windbag without pretension, hopelessly self-conscious of his gaucheness, yet he soldiers on with heartfelt effusions about true feelings and confusions. At the end of the day, the story returns to where it starts, like a full circle. During another chance meeting, Simon nerves himself up to ask Charlotte to be his lover again, plus ça change, but one must hand it to him for his temerity and perseverance, even Charlotte seems impressed. Mouret's open-handed ending gladsomely suggests it might not be the last time they see each other."

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Unbelievably it is a movie shot according to a diary with different times and dates recorded and also shown on the screenplay. The movie exists of solely dialogues between the two lovers in changing settings and scenes. Each scene is not long, so in the end it is an accumulation of different places and circumstances the viewer will become a witness of. However the settings and scenes are nice and beautiful, the two main actors are fitting them in a puristic way. Except from the dialogues nothing much more is happening and those longlasting and non-stopping dialogues become monotone, might also be the voice of the translators as I have seen the movie in German. The emotions and feelings merely got expressed strongly, so the viewer can feel acquainted to the actors. The content of the dialogues are in detail and both express their thoughts and wishes bluntly and without much emotional expression, neither through their faces or gesture. So the movie could also be a podcast to be heard by the audience, the result would nearly be the same.

O-la-la! Only French filmmakers can do that! A film about a perfectly normal extramarital love affair that doesn't just happen in our favorite MegaCity Paris of all time!

Sandrine KIBERLAIN and Vincent MACAIGNE play a middle-aged romantic couple who once again nibble on the forbidden fruits of lust. They live out their dreams and needs charmingly and directly, trained in the classics of Eric ROHMER and Woody ALLEN. Until, yes, until the duo makes their big dream of a threesome come true...

Charming and funny, tres francais! Such films are not to everyone's taste, but it's nice that they exist!