Despite having departed over a decade ago, the spirit of the wonderful Éric Rohmer remains alive and well in many young filmmakers, especially those from his native France that have inherited his legacy of telling beautifully human stories centred on ordinary people as they navigate any number of themes, ranging from romance to the most intricate details of the culture. One of his spiritual descendants is Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet, whose feature-length directorial debut Anaïs in Love (French: Les amours d’Anaïs) is one of the most achingly beautiful romances of recent years, a story of a young woman searching for herself through engaging in a couple of passionate affairs, which inadvertently inform her of some brutal realities of everyday life, which she realizes she has barely even encountered by the start of her story, despite her belief that she has all the answers. This is essentially the folly of youth, with our genuine belief that we are in command of the direction of our lives being our ultimate downfall, and is essentially what the director is searching for when composing this incredibly beautiful, and unequivocally hilarious, story of self-discovery in the modern world. A film executed with a precise vision and consistently endearing sense of humour that is not against highlighting the underlying sadness that many people represented by the main characters tend to feel on occasion. It’s a wonderfully effervescent and unexpectedly complex look at the human condition, as put together by someone who clearly understands all the details of the subject matter, both of the specific story being told, and of the genres in which she is working, which results in a film that is well-constructed, meaningful and simply a delight in every conceivable way.

As widespread as it may be as a medium, film can be reduced to only a few key elements, to which every work can inevitably be traced. The two central themes in Anaïs in Love are not difficult to uncover – this is primarily a romance, albeit not one that is entirely conventional, but it is also a film about identity, which is essentially what any modern film that centres on a young person navigating the world tends to be about. The titular character is someone who seems to think that she knows her direction in life, but really is only going through the motions of a functional adult, waiting patiently to find herself, which she inevitably does after a pair of chance encounters with individuals to whom she develops two very passionate relationships that divide the film into two very distinct acts. As upbeat and hilarious as it may be, Anaïs in Love is a comedy that is very much focused on the internal life of a character that is undergoing a laborious journey to try and find herself. This takes the form of trying to find the ideal partner in the hopes of answering this question, not realizing that what she is looking for can’t necessarily be found in another person, but that they can facilitate this voyage of self-discovery. The answers are within, and this is, at the most basic level, the general intention of the film as a whole. It’s likely that many young viewers will look at a film like Anaïs in Love and see a lot of themselves in the main character, who is more complex in her composition than many of us may have expected based on a cursory glance – and while it is not a definitive text on identity politics, it can feel a lot more nuanced than many contemporary films on the subject of surrendering to one’s desires, fighting against conventions and aiming for a more authentic way of life.

Contrasting the youthful meanderings of Anaïs with the more challenging journey of the older woman with whom she develops a very special connection contributes to the idea that it is never too late to rediscover yourself – and while we may be captivated by the titular protagonist’s journey the most, we can’t / There are numerous layers that Bourgeois-Tacquet is attempting to unearth as the film goes along, but the intricate attention to detail with which she is putting this film together, carefully telling a compelling story with the right amount of pathos and humour, only aids in getting to the eventual resolution, which can be slightly more ambigious, but hints at a much deeper meaning that isn’t clear on the surface, but becomes more visible the further we engage with the film. The first half of the film is a relatively conventional romantic comedy – a series of hilarious incidents between a young woman and the much older man with whom she is having an affair. In these moments, the film is charming but otherwise very straightforward – but it is midway through with the arrival of the other partner that not only complicates the protagonist’s affair, but changes the course of the entire film. Not only is she now confronted with the issue of developing feelings for someone she did not expect to be the source of such an existential quandary, but her new lover begins to also question her well-defined reality. The concept of “love at first sight” has become one of the most dreadful cliches, and very few works are capable of using this trope effectively – Anaïs in Love is one of them, with the moment the two catch sight of one another redirecting the film from being a very endearing and upbeat comedy, and takes it to the place of being an actively engaging, complex character study that provokes many fascinating questions on the intersections between identity and desire, which reconfigures the romance into something far more complex and intriguing.

In bringing this multitude of diverse and provocative themes to the screen, Bourgeois-Tacquet works with a small group of fantastic actors, who are tasked with bringing the characters to life. However, this is a clear case of some being better than others, and as much as we can appreciate Denis Podalydès for being a hardworking character actor, he is secondary to the two women that lead the film, with Anaïs in Love orbiting almost entirely around the female gaze, which makes sense considering the direction in which it ultimately moves. The titular character is played by the fascinating Anaïs Demoustier, whose performance is the king of complex, lived-in characterization on which the entire film is focused, and as a result, the success of the story essentially depends on her. She finds the perfect balance between eccentric and realistic – we’ve seen similar films fall apart at the seams as a result of performances that become weighed down by over-the-top idiosyncrasies, since there’s a tendency for this kind of character to be much less well-defined in almost identical scenarios. She is not afraid of being funny, but it’s a more grounded, sincere sense of humour that feels much more authentic. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi may only make her entrance midway through, after having been alluded to several times in the scenes leading up to her appearance, but the moment she makes her way onto the screen, the entire film changes – she grounds the film, bringing such gravitas to a role that could have been much less interesting in the hands of someone who saw the character of Emilie as just a middle-aged woman who finds herself questioning her sexuality. Bruni Tedeschi is one of our great performers, her screen presence and ability to morph into any kind of character making her such a powerful component of any project – but yet, this film feels almost like a rediscovery, a chance for a veteran actress to redefine herself and the kinds of characters she plays. It’s a minor miracle that these two performers managed to have such incredible chemistry, since the story itself is very strong, but it truly required the work of two exceptional individuals to highlight both the unquestionable desire both women feel, and use it in a way that feels so extraordinarily genuine.

Yet, as academic as this approach may have been, it doesn’t invalidate the point that Anaïs in Love is one of the most gleefully charming and effervescent comedies in quite a while, which is directly tied to these performances. To circle back to the Rohmer comparison (as well as the many other filmmakers dedicated to more simple methods of storytelling), there’s a gentle approach to how the director explores romance. She sees the act of falling in love as not a single sudden moment, but rather one that gradually develops, and she creates a vivid and colourful narrative landscape, where there are numerous moments in which the smallest details resonate the most. This is a film that stands firm in its steadfast conviction to celebrate the unquestionably beautiful nature of love, and whether in how she frames the first encounter between the two main characters (which is contrasted with their final scene, one of the most incredibly powerful moments of pure romantic expression), or in the smallest and most intricate demonstrations of their growing love, such as an absolutely stunning scene set to the timeless classic “Bette Davis Eyes”, which immediately elevates the film to the status of one of the most striking romances of recent years. The contrast between the youthful Demoustier and the more sensible, grounded Bruni Tedeschi gives the film ample opportunity to critically discuss its central themes in a way that is logical but also incredibly enjoyable. The film is based very much on serious subjects, but this does not necessarily mean it has to be dour – and from start to finish, the director populates the film with countless moments of genuine charm, which may make it appear to be a very slight romantic comedy on the surface, but which works together with the more sentimental subject matter surrounding the growing desire that forms between these two characters to create something much more complex.

There aren’t too many films that can attest to being as genuinely smart and insightful about its subject matter as Anaïs in Love, a film that makes its intentions very clear, showing us that it is aiming to exist as a very simple but effective meditation on a number of vital themes. Concepts around self-identity, the inevitability of ageing and, perhaps most importantly, the fact that love and romance does not ever expire unless one actively chooses to stop pursuing their heart’s true desires. It may not be a revolutionary film, but it contributes to a growing canon of queer-oriented stories that show that identity is not something that we all necessarily find ourselves figuring out early in life – for some, we nestle into our inevitable identity as soon as we come of age, while for others it is a much more active journey, one that never necessarily ends, but rather just becomes more ambiguous the further we push into life. The film celebrates the fact that we are all inevitably on a journey that has no predetermined location, and that even those who seem to genuinely believe that they have found their place in the world can have their entire perception changed by something as small as a chance encounter. This is what Anaïs in Love is focused on investigating, using wonderfully heartfelt humour, a cast of terrific actors and a story that draws our attention to many fascinating conversations, which all merge together to form this hopelessly charming and effervescent document of human desire, tied together by layers of soaring romance and eccentric humour, which makes for an almost revelatory experience that hints at issues much deeper than we’d expect, offering us a profoundly moving look into the lives of ordinary people, proving that sometimes the most beautifully affecting stories are hiding in plain sight.