Love ‘à la Française.’ Eros in the Context of the Films Le Fabuleux Destin d’ Amélie Poulain and Simple comme Sylvain
Love ‘à la Française.’ Eros in the Context of the Films Le Fabuleux Destin d’ Amélie Poulain and Simple comme Sylvain

Summary/Abstract: In a broader context, this study focuses on the expressive dimensions of the “esthétique du sexe” (aesthetics of sex) and on the iconisation of motifs and content relating to “sexe et sexualité” (sex and sexuality) and “érotique et pornographique” (erotic and pornographic) as they appear in contemporary (not exclusively French) art and culture. More narrowly, through a kind of cinematic dramatic arc, shaped on the one hand by the iconic French film Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain and, on the other, by the French-Canadian romantic drama Simple comme Sylvain, released twenty years later, the text pursues to interpret what, following Marilyn Yalom’s book How the French Invented Love, we might term love “à la française” (in the French style), or even love in the sense of the ancient Greek “eros.” The specific concepts of “amour” (love) are connected in this study to the expressive qualities of eroticism and pornographicity, examined with particular emphasis on the ways in which these qualities manifest themselves, whether explicitly or implicitly, in the films under discussion. Our interpretation applies principles and strategies ascribed to eroticism and pornographicity, thereby gradually uncovering the hidden semantic layers of the films as well as their pragmatic and existential resonances.

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