Matt Profaci
Overly ambitious project about a millennial love arc that ends in heartbreak, but what are the lessons learned? Murphy (Karl Glusman) is an open-minded film student in Paris who meets Elektra (Aomi Muyock), and the two embrace their high sex drives with giddyness. However, after the relationship embraces polyamory and swingers culture, only one of the two is emotionally stable enough to handle it.The film is directed really well by Noé, who by now should know well enough how to make it all super claustrophobic and uncomfortable for the viewer. The cinematography is good but relies too heavily on saturation but it's never really an issue. Nonlinear storytelling is clear, concise, and there's some really neat editing at parts. The story does drag often, and the film overall could've cut out 10-15 minutes of filler.The real issue with "Love" is the lack of chemistry between Murphy and Elektra -- we just don't see it, pretty much ever. The writing is there, but the actors just cannot grasp it. This is largely because -- are you ready? -- they aren't actors; Noé met both Glusman and Muyock in a club one night and asked them to star. It's clear that he wanted to achieve the most organic and natural relationship dynamic on-screen by not using "real actors" -- but in what is supposed to be an emotionally charged film, that just doesn't work.In fact, in a sort of disturbingly surreal manner, the very same issues that the film is trying to highlight in millennial relationships (emotional maturity and boundaries over sex) seem to show up in the unsimulated sex scenes between Glusman and Muyock. Glusman constantly falls out of character, allowing his own sexual desire to ruin the scene and any emotional impact Noé was looking for. Muyock seems bored and uninterested -- and who could blame her? -- likely due to Glusman's obvious zeal about getting paid to fuck her. I'm not sure he entirely understood the fact he was in an art film, and in remaining ignorant, he ends up verifying Noé's entire thesis: young adults, especially men, get lost in the idea of sexual nirvana over the thing that truly matters: love.The second half of the film lifts the veil on Murphy's narcissistic and emotionally abusive behavior in the relationship, and tragically, Glusman is a good actor when portraying an unstable douchebag (and Muyock is phenomenal when screaming at him).The film finishes the same place it starts, seeming to depict Murphy at rock-bottom in a horrible and accidental family dynamic: a fitting bookend to a relationship that was destroyed not by too much sex, but his own fear of it. The ending is eerie and powerful, and hints at the generational ripples that will be felt for decades because of his own actions. It's a great story, and sort of well-acted, but it ends up merely tripping up on its own interpretation of reality instead of offering us anything particularly new.
sam-519
Noé has never been one for making upbeat, happy films and Love is no different. It is, in essence, a love story, but moreover a lust story about how we can become imprisoned by our emotions via our need for validation and fulfilment. We can become captive physically, emotionally, situationally, psychologically. Love is told in typical Noé fashion: starting with the most recent events, it draws us rearward in time through a series of flashbacks before simultaneously presenting us with the root cause of the dire consequences the past has wrecked for the main character, Murphy. Murphy is an American in Paris in film school. One day he meets the beautiful artist Electra at a party and the two find that they have similar views on love, life and a shared need for intensity. They quickly form a relationship and their sex life is very healthy: they have sex frequently, intimately, closely, Electra at one point challenging Murphy to show her just "how tender" he can be. Unfortunately, acting out their sexual fantasies ends up proving the demise of both their relationship and their freedom when they have a threesome with Omi, a slim, pretty 16 year old blonde who moves in next door. Murphy continues a relationship with Omi behind Electra's back and Omi falls pregnant, deciding to keep the baby since she is "pro life" in contrast to Murphy who is "pro choice". Electra and Murphy split, leaving him to bring up the child in his own flat with Omi, a situation with damages his freedom and his creativity, eventually leading to depression. Electra disappears and becomes uncontactable, most likely committing suicide, as she threatens to do if the relationship between her and Murphy collapses.The film heavily centres on the duality of the past and the present. Within Murphy's Paris flat, the past is usually lit in red, emphasising excitement, sexuality, passion, danger, risk. The present, on the other hand, is lit in green, a safe, benign, calm, but slightly sickly colour being the opposite of the libidinous red. The 'red' scenes are mostly at night whereas the 'green' scenes are in daylight with rain pouring down outside, signifying the sadness of Murphy's inescapable situation. When Murphy is with Electra in the flat the flat is a mess: it is full of film posters, books everywhere, it is a very much an artist's flat. With Omi it is stark, organised, clean, controlled. It is the flat of a family man disciplined by his situation and his female. Murphy feels constantly trapped, keeping one shelf of his 'old life' tucked away in the corner, his old life made entirely of memories of Electra. On the shelf is a VHS (not a DVD, again signifying age and format change) of Noé's first film I Stand Alone, a nod to times gone by, personal development and the fact that, in the end, we are indeed all by ourselves. Murphy remarks in his mind that when one invites a female to live with them it's like "getting in bed with the CIA", absolutely everything is known, there is no privacy, no identity and little freedom.Of particular note is the sex in the film, which is explicit and frequent. This is typical of Noé, he presents real-life situations unglossed by some ultimative veneer. The sex in the film is not only meant to titillate but to show intensity and intimacy and the beauty of closeness between couples. It draws us into the moment, as it does the featured characters. But it also shows us the difference between types of sex (and types of love): when Murphy and Electra are alone enjoying each other it is beautiful, close, almost enviable, but when they have their threesome with Omi it feels awkward at times, forced, maybe not how they imagined. At one point in the long sex scene with Omi Murphy penetrates Omi from behind with Electra enjoying her on the other side: in this way it is the start of Omi 'getting between' the two of them. In essence, as with so much of Noé's work, Love is a warning. It is a warning about the consequences of making bad choices. The backwards-style storytelling shows how Murphy gets himself trapped in a situation through nothing but his own lust for Omi – it is entirely his fault after all – and as he says the only thing he is good at is "f---ing things up". In the process of following his emotions, his own lust and need for intimacy, he throws away his relationship with Electra, his creativity, his old life, whereas Omi also falls prey to her emotions by deciding to keep her child (her reasons for being pro-life whilst also being a meat-eater appear emotional rather than rational too, when challenged by Murphy on this point she has no reason other than "well, it's different"). At the end of the film Murphy fantasies/reminisces about holding Electra in the bathtub of his flat, where in reality he is now holding Gaspar, his child, with Omi outside in the hall, outside of his subconscious. The borders of the screen shrink to a square to emphasise the captivity of his situation, the white tiled walls of the bathroom, where his happy memories of Electra began, appearing now like the walls of an asylum or a concentration camp. As is told so many times in the film, love is the greatest thing in life... but with great power comes great responsibility. Love of any kind can be beautiful, exciting, passionate and fulfilling, but it carries risks, and mistreated and unchecked, it can bring unwanted results. Love is more powerful than we often care to admit to ourselves, and with this film Noé is showing us the largely negative consequences of love on freedom. As Murphy is told by one of his ex girlfriends: when you fall in love, you ultimately lose out.
JoSantz
I haven't quite made up my mind about this film. I don't think I've enjoyed it, however I believe it's a great film to analyse.You can definitely feel it's a Noé film, the cuts, the speed, the colors, the characters, the extra 15 min that weren't really necessary, etc.. Love - in my opinion it's a good title because I felt the couple was in love, and that this film was about love and represents a real couple, like in Blue Valentine.Sex scenes - I kind of understand it, you don't often see real couples making love in films, you just see actors compelled to look hot as hell so that everyone else that's watching feels bad about their bodies and a sexual desires. Despite all of this I think there are too many explicit scenes which add nothing to the story.Murphy - I'm not a big fan of analogies, mainly the ones that are forced just because. That said, I didn't get the analogy in the beginning, in my point of view, it has no logic. The same goes for Electra. - I felt Murphy was really in love, what I didn't get was, in the midst of almost 2h of love, why does he keep cheating. If you love someone, which he apparently does, you don't have room for some random girl, to whom you speak at a party for 5 min, that agrees with your ideas, exactly the ones your girlfriend doesn't. I didn't feel this so I don't understand his need for cheating.Voice over - I see a lot of people complaining about this, well I liked the emotion and reality it expressed, mainly when his at home with the mother of his child.There was a little annoying thing, I started feeling that this was sort of a biography of Noé, it had to many obvious details about him like it was an Ode to Noé...didn't get.Once again, I think it's a good film to analyse and think about if you have the time and interest.
