Murphy, an American film student in Paris, falls utterly and completely in love with Electra, an unstable aspiring artist. Flash-forward to a few years later; Murphy, now in a miserable mental state, lives with his new partner Omi, his only solace coming from the moments he spends raising the young son he had with her. Unexpectedly, he receives a call from Electra’s mom, inquiring about her daughter’s whereabouts; this sparks Murphy to soul-crushingly reminisce about the emotionally charged relationship they had together. There begins an intense lustful melodrama painted with a romanticist brush, where every stroke conveys a wild typhoon of either euphoria or pain, sexual desire or disgust, profound pleasure or crippling depression.
Gaspar Noé conducts a thorough exploration of unhinged profound love and all its consequences, ambitiously portrayed through the lens of uncompromising sex. Just as its director’s vision of the eponymous feeling, Love’s cinematography is beautiful, complicated, and sexual-driven. Lengthy unsimulated sex scenes abound, propelling the story forward; sex clubs, neon-lit parties and libertine drug-fueled events pave the way of a nonlinear journey through an explosive relationship.
Matis Brassard-Verrier