Love
Close up image of three people kissing with tongues
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGaspar Noé
Written byGaspar Noé
Produced by
  • Vincent Maraval
  • Gaspar Noé
  • Brahim Chioua
  • Rodrigo Teixeira
Starring
CinematographyBenoît Debie
Edited by
  • Gaspar Noé
  • Denis Bedlow
Music by
Production
companies
  • Les Cinémas De La Zone[1]
  • Rectangle Productions
  • Wild Bunch
  • RT Features
Distributed byWild Bunch
Release dates
  • 20 May 2015 (2015-05-20) (Cannes)
  • 15 July 2015 (2015-07-15) (France)
Running time
135 minutes[2][3]
Countries
  • France
  • Belgium
LanguageEnglish[2]
Budget€2.55 million[1]
($2.9 million)
Box office$861,057[4]

Love is a 2015 erotic drama art film[5] written and directed by Gaspar Noé.[6] The film marked Noé's fourth directorial venture after a gap of five years. It had its premiere at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and was released in 3D. The film is notable for its unsimulated sex scenes. The film received mixed reviews.

Plot

Murphy (Karl Glusman) is an American film student living in Paris. On a rainy January morning, he receives a call at the small apartment he shares with Danish partner Omi (Klara Kristin) and their 18-month-old son, Gaspar. The surprise visitor is Nora, the mother of his ex-girlfriend Electra (Aomi Muyock), who asks if Murphy knows of her daughter's whereabouts. She hasn't heard from Electra in three months, and is worried, given her issues with depression and previous suicide attempts.

For the rest of this day, Murphy recalls his relationship with Electra in a series of fragmented, nonlinear flashbacks. They depict their first meeting; their quick hook-up; and their lives over the next two years, which are filled with drug abuse, rough sex, and tender moments. Murphy and Electra eventually met and had a no-strings-attached threesome with Omi, then a young adolescent, as a way to add some excitement to their love life.

However, Murphy continued his sexual relationship with Omi, without Electra's knowledge. This eventually resulted in an unplanned pregnancy, due to a broken condom. Omi refused to terminate the pregnancy, as she was against abortion. Admitting the truth to Electra ultimately ended her and Murphy's relationship, leading to the present-day set up of Murphy and Omi raising the child together. Electra's whereabouts and ultimate fate are left unresolved at the end of the film.

Cast

  • Karl Glusman as Murphy
  • Aomi Muyock as Electra
  • Klara Kristin as Omi
  • Ugo Fox as Gaspar (the baby)
  • Juan Saavedra as Julio
  • Gaspar Noé as Noé
  • Isabelle Nicou as Nora
  • Vincent Maraval as Castel
  • Deborah Revy as Paula
  • Stella Rocha as Mama
  • Xamira Zuloaga as Lucile
  • Benoît Debie as Yuyo
  • Omaima S. as Victoire

Production

Initially, Noé wanted the then-married couple Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel to play the leads, but they took issue with the explicit, unsimulated sex.[7]

Love is the screen debut of the film's two main actresses, Muyock and Kristin.[8] Noé met them in a club. He found Karl Glusman for the role of Murphy through a mutual friend.[9] The budget of the film was approximately €2.6 million.[1] Principal photography took place in Paris.[6] Noé has said that the film's screenplay was seven pages long.[10]

In a pre-release interview with Marfa Journal, Noé implied that the film would have an explicitly sexual feel. He asserted that it would "give guys a hard-on and make girls cry".[11]

The film is notable for its unsimulated sex scenes.[10][12][13] According to NPR, "roughly half of Gaspar Noe's Love consists of raw, unsimulated sex acts – presented in 3D, no less".[14] In most cases, the sex scenes were also not choreographed.[15]

Gaspar Noé said that some of the sex scenes in the film are real while others are simulated. The director also preferred not to reveal which ones were simulated and leave the possibility to the spectators to detect the true from the false. "I think the experience of sex should be represented in all its power - instead of being caricatured as it is too often", he explained before specifying that he also did according to wants and needs of the actors: "I also composed with the limits of the actors. For Karl Glusman (Murphy), the representation of ejaculation was done in a natural way; actresses experience this differently and I respected their limits."[16]

Release

The week before its debut at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, the film's U.S. distribution rights were acquired by Alchemy.[17][18] It was selected to be screened in the Vanguard section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.[19] The film also screened in The International Film Festival of Kerala, held in Thiruvananthapuram, India.[20]

The film was refused a license to be screened in Russia.[21]

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 40% with an average rating of 5.1/10, based on 94 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads: "Love sees writer-director Gaspar Noé delivering some of his warmest and most personal work; unfortunately, it's also among his most undeveloped and least compelling."[22] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[23]

Some critics and audiences were shocked by the films graphic sexual content, including the opening sex scene which inspired audiences filming their reactions to the opening scene on social media.[24]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lemercier, Fabien (27 April 2015). "Enfant terrible Gaspar Noé is back with Love". Cineuropa. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  2. 1 2 "Love [2D] (18)". British Board of Film Classification. 10 September 2015. Archived from the original on 11 October 2015. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  3. ↑ "Gaspar Noé's LOVE: first official cast & crew list". Le Temps Détruit Tout. 9 May 2015. Archived from the original on 10 May 2015. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  4. ↑ "Love (2015)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
  5. ↑ Neuman, Jules (6 November 2015). "Review: Noe's "Love" Has Sex, 3D, and Little Else". The Movie Blog. Retrieved 22 February 2018. Love, Gaspar Noe's sexy sex filled art house adventure
  6. 1 2 Pete Hammond (21 May 2015). "Gaspar Noe's 3D Porn Movie 'Love' Lands In Cannes: "This Could Never Have Been Made In America"". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
  7. ↑ Barlow, Helen (9 December 2015). "Director Gaspar Noé explains why real sex scenes were filmed for Love movie". Irish Examiner. Irish Examiner Ltd. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
  8. ↑ Webb, Beth (20 May 2015). "Revealed: the 3D sex odyssey set to scandalise Cannes". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 30 May 2015. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
  9. ↑ Keijser, Marjolein (24 May 2015). ""Love" Press Conference, Movie Review (Cannes)". GrungeCake. Archived from the original on 25 October 2015. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  10. 1 2 Buchanan, Kyle (21 May 2015). "Cannes: Is Love the Most Sexually Explicit Film of the Year?". Vulture. Archived from the original on 1 June 2015.
  11. ↑ Jagernauth, Kevin (23 April 2015). "Gaspar Noe's 3D 'Love' And More Added To Cannes Film Festival Lineup". The Playlist. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
  12. ↑ Barlow, Helen (9 December 2015). "Director Gaspar Noé explains why real sex scenes were filmed for Love movie". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
  13. ↑ Seymour, Tom (21 November 2015). "Gaspar Noé's Love: 'We're not doing anything perverse'". The Guardian.
  14. ↑ Jenkins, Mark (29 October 2015). "Graphic Doesn't Mean Interesting, Particularly In 'Love'". NPR.
  15. ↑ Smith, Nigel (23 May 2015). "Cannes: Gaspar Noé on Shooting Sex in 'Love' and Why He Loves His Bad Reviews". IndieWire. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
  16. ↑ "Love sur Netflix : Les scènes de sexe sont-elles toutes non-simulées ?". www.melty.fr. 8 July 2020. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  17. ↑ "Complement to the Official Selection". Cannes Film Festival. 23 April 2015. Archived from the original on 5 May 2015. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  18. ↑ Smith, Nigel M. (17 May 2015). "Cannes: Gaspar Noe's 3D Sex Odyssey 'LOVE' Goes to Alchemy". IndieWire. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  19. ↑ Gates, Jamie (11 August 2015). "Toronto Film Festival Adds 60+ Titles". IndieWire. Archived from the original on 11 August 2015. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  20. ↑ Ragesh, G. (10 December 2015). "Love". Malayala Manorama. Archived from the original on 13 December 2015.
  21. ↑ Tokmasheva, Maria (30 January 2018). "Final cut: Movies that have been banned in Russia". Russia Beyond. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  22. ↑ "Love (2015)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
  23. ↑ "Love reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
  24. ↑ Bain, Ellissa (25 June 2020). "The first scene of Netflix movie 'Love' goes viral - watch the reactions on TikTok!". HITC.
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