Beating Hearts

The French term “amour fou” (literally translates to “crazy love”) is often used to describe the all-consuming, downright obsessive relationships found throughout literature and film history, but rarely in real life. By re-arranging the letters of the last word with the title L’Amour Ouf, director Gilles Lellouche plays upon this romantic folly for his latest feature, and, as we learn in the film, the interjection “ouf” also refers to a potential partner, who is a perfect ten.

After a high-octane opening sequence teases at cataclysmic events lying ahead, L’Amour Ouf shifts down a gear and introduces the viewer to the children its protagonists once were. While Jackie is the apple of her father’s eye and he bends over backwards in his attempt to be an adequate substitute for her deceased mother, Clotaire’s family home is shaped by violence. When the two meet as teenagers – now a delinquent high-school dropout versus a smart, perky young woman, utterly able to hold her own – both lives are forever changed.

Set to the haunting synth riffs of The Cure’s A Forest, their immediate bond is visualised by Jackie and Clotaire connecting on a different plane of existence, a dance that nobody else can see. They start dating, but Clotaire’s ties to organised crime soon catch up with him and break the pair apart. As destructive as it was exhilarating, the passion the two shared is something they never find matched with anybody else going forward.

The epic scale of this almost three-hour-long feature has something of a bildungsroman, the characters’ respective developments echoed in the other, as a way to explain why some love stories are almost otherworldly in their intensity. The young actors Mallory Wanecque (who also starred in 2022 Cannes hit The Worst Ones) and Malik Frikah are unexpectedly strong leads. Only the second half brings out the big guns that are François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos, who effortlessly take over the adult versions of these star-crossed lovers with equal bravura.

Beating Hearts stuns with a Hollywood-tinted blockbuster feel, somewhat unusual for continental European cinema, but a welcome surprise amid the usual dialogue-oriented romantic dramas. Unapologetically stylised and stylish, this 80s-set rambunctious joyride serves as a reminder that few genres go together like love and crime.

Selina Sondermann

Beating Hearts does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Cannes Film Festival 2024 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Cannes Film Festival website here.