FRANCE
2010 / WORLD PREMIERE
1H40 / IN FRENCH
Synopsis
Young extrovert Bahia Benmahmoud lives by this classic motto : "Make love, not war" - In order to convert them to her cause, she sleeps with her political enemies - which means a lot of men, because every conservative is her enemy. So far, she's gotten good results. Until she meets Arthur Martin, 40-something. She figures that with such a common name (there are more than 10,000 Arthur Martins in France), he's bound to be a real conservative and thus hard to convert. Yet, names are treacherous and things aren't always what they seem. Bahia and Arthur are as different as two people can be, but when they fall in love, sparks fly...
director: Michel Leclerc
screenplay: Baya Kasmi & Michel Leclerc
cinematography: Vincent Mathias - AFC
sound: Sophie Laloy, Emmanuel Augeard, François Groult
editing: Nathalie Hubert
production design: Jean-Marc Tran Tan Ba - ADC
music: Jérôme Bensoussan - David Euverte
cast:
Jacques Gamblin
Sara Forestier
Zinedine Soualem
Carole Franck
Jacques Boudet
Michèle Moretti
Yann Goven
production
KARÉ PRODUCTIONS
Antoine Rein, Fabrice Goldstein
Tel. +33 1 58 53 55 00
DELANTE FILMS
Caroline Adrian, Antoine Rein
Tel. : +33 1 43 66 22 66
distribution
UGC DISTRIBUTION
Vincent Perez
Tel. : +33 1 46 40 44 00
vperez@ugc.fr
sales
TF1 INTERNATIONAL
Nicolas Eschbach
Tel. +33 1 41 41 21 68
kbenamor@tf1.fr
French press
Florence Narozny
Tel. +33 1 40 13 98 09
Mob. +33 6 86 50 24 51
florence.narozny@wanadoo.fr
International press
Magali Montet
Magali@magalimontet.com
contact Cannes
KARÉ PRODUCTIONS
DELANTE FILMS
Antoine Rein
Fabrice Goldstein
Caroline Adrian
Portrait
The Names of Love by Pierre-Simon Gutman
Since the director admits it himself, let’s say it right now: Michel Leclerc identifies himself with Him, his Jospiniste hero, the cautious but honest Arthur Martin. Whereas his scenarist, Baya Kasmi identifies herself with Her, a young idealist woman, free, enthusiastic, and willing to change the world as soon as possible. So She and He (Elle et Lui, aka Love Affair), the oldest topic in the world which reminds of Leo McCarey’s eponymous classics. But Leclerc apparently feels closer to Woody Allen, as he confesses that his dream is to reproduce, one by one, all of the New Yorker’s successes, even if he risks an accusation of plagiarism, which would, however, give him the opportunity to meet his hero. So a comedy, a speaking comedy, as the director puts it. Almost a traditional Italian comedy: with a discreet man who meets a tornado, depicted by her author as scandalous and innocent. In directing THE NAMES OF LOVE, Michel Leclerc not only does his bit for a noble and great tradition, but he also offers a lighthearted and relevant look on political commitment, from a director who admits the modern world’s inherent complexity but refuses the confusion between left-wing and right-wing. A resistant cry since the director tells (and we can hear his indomitable heroine here): when we commit, we risk being mistaken, but when we don’t commit, we’re sure to be mistaken! Besides, one of this comedy’s core messages is deeply romantic.
