Film review: Could this be love (French)

Watched this French film at an ongoing European Film Festival in Pune yesterday and liked it quite a bit.

This Pierre Jolivet directed film is about a charming 43 year old man, Lucas (Vincent Lindon), a rich, divorced industrialist, who tends to go all out when he’s in love.Smarting from a recent affair (where the woman was set up by one of his competitors), Lucas feels it imperative to know all about the woman he’s freshly fallen in love with. He’s incredibly attracted to the 38 year old Elsa (Sandrine Bonnaire), a ceramist whom he’s commissioned to create a fresco for his office foyer. To put to rest all his doubts, he hires his detective friend to know all there is about his ladylove.

Initially, the feisty and quick-witted Elsa plays quite hard to get but finds herself falling for her employer. Their first few attempts at love making prove disastrous for one reason or the other but they get over it soon, and find each other head over heels in love.

But just when life looks perfect, Elsa gets a whiff of the ‘spy devises’ installed in her house and thinks of Lucas as a ‘whacko’ She shuns him, only to have him go into a major depression and snack on frozen Pizza for days on end.
Yet, in the end, the real story gets around to Elsa and to Lucas’ surprise, he hears about his ladylove finishing the fresco in his office foyer. Overjoyed, he rushes to her and it’s all good again for the love birds.
This is quite a light-hearted film, paying a nice little tribute of sorts to the art of ceramics. Vincent Lindon, as the handsome businessman with his heart on his sleeve, is delight to watch. All in all, a nice little love story here.
-Sandhya Iyer