L’Amour en douce is a French film comedy-drama first released in 1985, directed by Edouard Molinaro.  The film stars Daniel Auteuil, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Emmanuelle Béart, Sophie Barjac and Daniel Ceccaldi.  It has also been released under the title: Love on the Quiet.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


When lawyer Marc Delmas learns that his wife Jeanne has invited her new lover Antoine to move in with her, his reaction is to hire a call girl, Samantha Page.  To his surprise, Samantha is intelligent and sensitive, as well as beautiful, and he immediately falls in love with her.  His relationship with Jeanne well and truly over, Marc starts an affair with Samantha, and the couple live an idyllic life alongside Jeanne and Antoine.  Things suddenly go wrong for everyone when one of Samantha’s ex-boyfriends turns up unexpectedly…

This lightweight romantic comedy was directed by Edouard Molinaro, who is probably best known for such French hit comedies as La Cage aux folles (1978).  Whilst the story and characterisation are somewhat simplistic and far from convincing, some fine performances from a superlative cast make the film both emotionally engaging and entertaining.  Daniel Auteuil appears along side his wife-to-be Emmanuelle Béart for the first time; they would subsequently work together on a number of films including Claude Sautet’s Un coeur en hiver (1992).

© James Travers 2006

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