Emmanuel Mouret is surely one of the most scrutinized French directors, especially since the resounding success of Mademoiselle de Joncquières in 2018 and The things we say, the things we do selected at Cannes in 2020, an edition canceled due to the pandemic. Chronicle of a temporary liaison, presented in the Cannes Première selection out of competition, marks its “real” return to the Cannes Film Festival, under good auspices if we are to believe the long applause after the Salle Agnès Varda screening.
Charlotte and Simon have just started an affair. Charlotte (Sandrine Kiberlain) is a single mother. Still young, beautiful, radiant, she expressed her desire to him simply, frankly. Simon (Vincent Macaigne), he is married. Clumsy, complicated, he hesitated before taking the plunge, but quickly gave in. The current goes perfectly, the two will be the perfect lovers: between them, they swear, it will be nothing but pleasure, without projection into the future, above all without complication. Obviously, from the title we know that the affair will be temporary: the question, the suspense itself, is entirely in the evolution of the relationship that we follow in a chronicle step by step, month after month.
Emmanuel Mouret has no equal in showing this passing time, through fragments of shared life, which gradually make the characters evolve. Here a walk in the countryside, there a game of badminton, there again a scene in bed after love… And the skilfully chosen music (from Javanaise by Juliette Gréco to Handel via Mozart and… Ravi Shankar) come as a scansion between each period. The gestures, attitudes, faces of Sandrine Kiberlain and Vincent Macaigne, excellent, betray this evolution a little more each time. The other actors, Georgia Scalliet in the lead, are disturbingly accurate.
Throughout, Mouret delicately films the agreement, the tenderness, the sensuality of the extramarital relationship. But also speech. Charlotte and Simon admit that they love talking as much as making love. We talk, we talk a lot in this film: about each other’s tastes, about life, about their relationship. Of “passion”, a word that she abhors, because it is displayed far too often as an obligation, she says. Guilt, which Simon says he no longer has because he has managed to split his person in two: I have two selves, he says in essence, and two distinct relationships, one with my wife and one with you.
Chronicle of a temporary liaison is a delicious and brilliant romantic fantasy in the spirit of the 18th century – which made the success of Mademoiselle de Joncquières – who flirts with Truffaut – we think of Claude Jade and Jean-Pierre Léaud in stolen kisses – and especially with Rohmer, in his endless dialogues on daily life. A very good Cannes vintage.
Genre : Drama, Romance
Director: Emmanuel Mouret
Actors: Sandrine Kiberlain, Vincent Macaigne, Georgia Scalliet
Pays : France
Duration : 1h40
Sortie : September 14, 2022
Distributer : Pyramide Distribution
Synopsis : A single mother and a married man become lovers. Committed to seeing each other only for fun and not feeling any romantic feelings, they are more and more surprised by their complicity…