Anaïs in Love

Norway’s entry for the 2022 Academy Award for Best International Feature was Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World. The critically acclaimed film follows a messy and deeply flawed young woman through her daily life and collapse of romantic relationships. Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s French film, Anaïs in Love has similar themes. It’s not a better movie that The Worst Person in the World; but it is bisexual.

Anaïs in Love begins with the titular Anaïs nearly at the end of a relationship with her current boyfriend. while Anaïs is full of life, joy and exuberance, she’s also unreliable, socially unaware and has difficulty engaging with the more “boring” parts of an interpersonal relationship. She’s also claustrophobic which manifests in strange and inconvenient ways. Anaïs meets Daniel, an older married man who is taken by Anaïs’ joie de vivre. And Anaïs has expectations that an affair with an older married man will be passionate in the way she craves. But she is quickly let down when it doesn’t measure up to what she imagines. Daniel’s wife, Emilie is a writer. And Anaïs decides to manipulate circumstances so she can meet her. When she succeeds in doing so, Emilie too is taken by Anaïs, and vice-versa.

It takes almost an hour for the movie to get bisexual. And that’s a shame because the relationship between Anaïs and Emilie is the most interesting to me. Shocking. It’s got a deeply flawed foundation of Anaïs concealing the truth from Emilie. But the women’s personalities compliment each other in their differences. Flaws and all, Anaïs makes for a great muse for Emilie. And Anaïs seems to enjoy the position. Who better to offer her the narrow view of passion that she craves than a writer? But, the women’s flaws still stymie the relationship’s development. Anaïs still isn’t mature enough for an adult relationship and Emilie won’t seize the moment, even when “the moment” is a woman actively seducing her. Emilie even admits that the two project a lot onto each other. And that’s very true. All in all, this relationship could’ve fuelled a whole movie.

Admittedly, Anaïs’ messy love life takes away from some of her character development. The Worst Person in the World also had a character at least partially defined by messy romances. But that character had more of a chance to grow. Anaïs’ two main romances do less of this. With Daniel, we learn more of Anaïs’ inherent traits. But the time we get to Emilie, Anaïs is pretty full sketched out, now it’s time for her to develop. Which she doesn’t do much of. Anaïs doesn’t have as much of an arc in the film as I would’ve wanted. It’s more about her affairs with this married couple than it is a film about Anaïs overall.

The other difference between Anaïs in Love and The Worst Person in the World is the sensuality. I don’t want to draw national stereotypes based on two films. So I won’t. I’ll just say that the French Anaïs in Love had more of a focus on sensuality, physicality and desire. It does make for a lush, beautiful film. Beyond sexuality, the film highlights everyday experiences with a romantic eye. The shots in this film and the version of France it sketches are absolutely stunning. A feeling of romance pervades even scenes without a romantic interest. The movie is basically seducing its audience with its lux colours, effervescent energy and frequent shots of its lead character undressing.

Anaïs in Love is a beautifully shot portrait of a flawed woman. And I mean genuinely flawed. Anaïs may have “quirky” traits, but her character flaws are far from harmless. There’s a touch of idealization or romanticization of the character, but it never falls into a manic pixie dreamgirl type thing. Instead, Anaïs is an engaging portrait of a very messy woman with very messy relationships. While its writing isn’t as strong as The Worst Person in the World, the visuals and aesthetics of the film make it a more than pleasant sit.

Overall rating: 6.7/10

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