What would you do for your most deeply held beliefs? Write a letter to the editor? Stand on the street handing out pamphlets? Travel across the world to help the needy? Baya Benmahmoud (Sara Forestier) is doing her part: She sleeps with her political opponents as part of her efforts to convert them. Born to a quiet Algerian artist father and a hippie French mother, the young woman is a fervent left-winger who uses her considerable charms to seduce right-wing men and convince them of their folly. There seems to be a large number of right-leaning men in France, so Baya’s bedroom sees frequent visitors.
One of them is Arthur Martin (Jacques Gamblin). The older man’s common name — think John Smith in English — makes Baya think he’s a bourgeois fascist, but it’s not the case. Arthur, in fact, is a committed socialist, though perhaps not quite left-wing enough for her tastes. But something strange happens: Baya keeps sleeping with him anyway. The free-spirited girl who almost seems most comfortable naked begins to fall in love with the fortysomething buttoned-up ornithologist. And he certainly finds her irresistible. A woman that beautiful, though, always comes with complications. Baya pushes Arthur to connect with his ancestors as she has with hers — his mother survived the Holocaust, but no one in the family will discuss it. Worse might be that she insists on continuing her political project.
| On screen |
| ‘The Names of Love’ |
| 3.5 out of 5 stars |
| Stars: Sara Forestier, Jacques Gamblin |
| Director: Michel Leclerc |
| Rated: R for sexual content, including graphic nudity, and some language |
| Running time: 100 minutes |
A film with such a clever premise could easily slide from satire to silliness. But “The Names of Love” is fun without being too farcical. The woman at its center, an actress little known in America, is so compelling, she demands to be taken seriously as she plays someone who doesn’t seem to take anything too seriously. Forestier, like the character she plays, is a force of nature. Gamblin wisely underplays his role, standing in for an audience that can’t help but be charmed.
What starts off as a frivolous, sexy comedy finally turns into something with more heft, just as, despite the odds, Baya and Arthur’s relationship does. Sexual politics are a mainstay of cinema. Here, they just add energy to the wider world of politics in which its characters live, with varying degrees of control and comfort.
