Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno

Amin quits his Paris medical school and returns to his seaside home town, intent on pursuing his twin interests of photography and writing sci-fi scrips. He quickly discovers that his womanising brother Tony (Salim Kechiouche, more famous to British audiences for such gay-friendly fare as 'Grande École' and 'Le Clan') is having an affair with his pultridudinous childhood friend Ophélie. Amin and Tony visit the beach, where they meet two tourists, Charlotte and Céline. Charlotte quickly falls for Tony's swarthy charms, and Céline initially seems interested in Amin - before showing equal interest in his humorous friend Joe and, indeed, in Ophélie.

On paper, this soapy storyline looks as if it could be dealt with relatively quickly. Director/co-writer Abdellatif Kechiche, however, spins it out to a squirm-inducing 181 minutes. He does this mainly by lengthening scenes way beyond their ability to hold the viewer's attention: for example, a nightclub sequence which adds nothing to the development of either plot or character lasts, by my reckoning, at least quarter of an hour but could have finished in half that time; and to establish that Ophélie works on a goat farm all that was needed was for her to say "I've got to get to the goat farm"; instead we're treated to five minutes of her herding the creatures into a barn.

Kechiche frequently has his actors talking over one another, which may be an accurate mirror of real-life conversation, but makes it difficult for the viewer to keep track of who is saying what, particularly when reading sub-titles. He also often places his actors in front of the sun, casting them into shadow and searing the eyeballs of his audience.

This film is sub-titled 'Canto Uno', which suggests one or more sequels. Even though the characters are largely likeable, and there is comfort in the predictability of the story, unless those sequels benefit from much tighter editing than did this, I won't be going anywhere near them.

I am surprised with the marks given by Imdb's users. Three years after seeing this film I still think about it, its music, its caracters, its mood accompany me. Mektoub My Love is a great movie, maybe not a masterpiece you would re-watch on an on but it's a great film, with a proper mood and a sensitive artistic touch. Among other things, it features a great sensuality and some brilliant actors (most of them are beginners and turn out to be really good especially Ophelie Bau who delivers a promising performance). Abdellatif Khechiche has this capacity to take the best out of his actors, he is also capable of captivating and bewitching his audience in a multi sensory journey. Khechiche does not make entertainment, it's not an action movie you should be looking for, it's a travel into his adolescence in the South of France, an ode to the youth, the non-endind summer and the awakening of desire. I think this film, a bit like "La graine et le mulet" which also took place in Sète (France), is very personal for the director. In fact, the heroe, Amin, looks like Abdelatif Khechiche himself (a young French man with arab origins who studies cinema...), the seaside resort he depicts really exists and you can't help thinking he's put some of his personal affairs in this story. What is interesting in Khechiche's cinema is how he shows the awakening of desire and the aesthetics chosen. I believe critics define it as naturalist cinema, a cinema that focuses on the flesh, the bodies, the lips sometimes even the driblle with an unmissable focus on the curves of women ; it's a cinema with a strong eroticization of the body but it's also a cinema that requires time, some scenes can be very long and Khechiche does it on purpose to insist on the desire felt, the games of seduction or to insist on the lenght of the night. Mektoub my love is a brilliant example of what Khechiche does best in that sense. Along with all that, the film features a social accuracy that gives a true insight to the film. It's not only about the birth of desire at the age of 20, it's also about a certain category of youth and summer loves. His cinema is always very realistic, you can feel the mood of a seaside resort, you understand its youth, its seduction games and you feel so comfortable that you would appreciate being part of the film actually. Like in "La vie d'Adèle", Khechiche goes very far into the eroticization of the bodies and the scenes at the beach (so beautiful...all of them), in the night club (slightly long I admitt) and the never ending approches between young adults reflect so well his cinema and the theme chosen : the birth of desire and sexuality at a young age. If you take your time (I think it's the key) and let you drift by Khechiche's poetry, you will certainly fall in love and enjoy being young (again) for the length of the movie.

In fact Abdellatif Kechiche dreams of making a series. The length of his films is justified by his desire to make a documentary on the social engineering between these characters on the Mediterranean coast who spend their time talking to say nothing. Each scene is treated as a piece of bravura, as a montage sequence with a multitude of details and interactions between characters who have nothing to say to each other. That is to say, Kechiche's camera wants to be at the center of the people, at the center of their interactions, like a documentary, to reflect a reality, which is very positive here, and the film is extremely brilliant in terms of staging, or rather capturing the scenes. But each of these montage sequences would have been treated in a very different way by many filmmakers with multiple ellipses or not shown at all.

Moreover, Abdellatif Kechiche's other passion is to show women's bodies, especially their asses and breasts. It is not unpleasant, because the film is very naturalistic on this subject. It must be admitted that these characters are not exciting and that is the limit of the film. Stretching out these character interactions over 180 minutes would have been much better as a series in, say, twenty-minute modules, with each scene lasting twenty minutes; and the series format would add even more.

It's brilliant in terms of direction. But boring on the diegetic level. The evolutions of the main character touch us weakly.

Basically, lots of flesh. Scandalous, considering the action takes places in a muslim country, but the waves of visiting tourists makes flirt & nudity an everyday business. Amin's gaze is of an non-judgmental observer, reluctunt to engage. Love has little to do with the place, except for the lambs maybe - a cliche for innocence. Op-ending, the movie (hardly a story) lacks a morale; sometimes life is such.

Kechiche intuitively knows how to film bodies and the souls that drive them. It's an organic cinema, distilled in the most nostalic and melancholic barrel. We're all trapped on that beach, surrounded by love on a warm summer afternoon.

Always.