TIFF 2020: SIMPLE PASSION IS SIMPLY STEAMY

When asked if whether would director Danielle Arbid‘s film Simple Passion would offend anyone or any group especially those who are in ties with the #MeToo movement, her answer was pretty frank.  Coming from a Lebanese family and background, Danielle has experienced in all in her war-torn country.  She experienced much at a younger age such as driving a car when she was twelve or going to a nightclub and trying to get picked up by older men.  You can say that Danielle Arbid has led quite an excitable life that no challenge would stand in her way.  Especially when adapting one of her favourite novels from Annie Ernaux which is the title of this film, Simple Passion.  The story is about passion and the willingness to give yourself and your everything to someone.  It’s also about how sometimes this emotion is uncontrollable and puts a real dent into your mundane normalcy.  Morals and ethics are just thrown out the window and they don’t even count and it just doesn’t matter.  When that passion does leave there is a much greater stretch from recovery where your mind is so out of whack that you have no idea how to get back where you once were and where things were only working out in some departments.  Recently screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and San Sebastian, director Danielle Arbid presents this film in an artistic erotic way that is unselfish yet fulfills the sexual ethos.  Why sugar coat your vision of the film when you can make it deliciously improper?

The film is focused on Hélene, who is played by Laetitia Dosch, who is a divorced graduate lecturer and a single mother to a tween boy.  She is preparing a thesis on Aphra Behn who is the first woman to make a living as a writer and Hélene calls her a “chronicler of the forgotten”.  After watching a romantic film with her friend Anita, played by Caroline Ducey, she sides with the male lead of Eiji Okada in Resnais‘ Hiroshima, My Love.  She says that a beautiful woman such as Emmanuelle Riva is always desired but never loved which is always the male fantasy narrative in movies.  Hélène reveals to Anita that she has met a Russian diplomat Alexandre, played by Russian ballet star Sergei Polunin, who is stationed in Paris and says that her affair is quite steamy.   From this point on director Danielle Arbid takes you on Hélène’s journey of passion in which she confuses with love as it gets in the way of her normal routine, to say the least.

There’s a high level of eroticism in Simple Passion that it will remind you of an Adrian Lyne film.  The excitement the two share when they see each other and have sex is catapulted to the fact that Alexandré is a married man and calls the shots of this affair.  Hélène is unable to call, text or get a hold of Alexandré and must wait for him to call when he wants to see her.  Hélène is just happy with this catch and the fact that someone wants her.  Although, things start to unravel for her as all she does is think about him like when she rides the train just like Diane Lane in the film Unfaithful and obsesses about his tattoos.  She has to remain patient and wait for that next phone call she gets when he is in the area.  When that phone call is made, Hélène does get that aggressive mysterious passion from Alexandré that makes the audience hot and bothered when the two get it on.

Hélène played by Laetitia Dosch

Director Danielle Arbid creates these erotic sex scenes that have been built up by the waiting game that Héléne has to play.  When Alexandre charges after and grabs her crotch under her skirt, or when she is bent over on a kitchen table ready to get it doggy-style, or when she is getting felt up in his expensive car riding along an underground tunnel are all the things that people do when they are passionate about each other.  The fact that time is a major factor in this affair makes it erotic which is done in fine taste by Danielle Arbid.  The two don’t have the time do get handcuffed, whipped or blindfolded like Fifty Shades of Grey.  The two must get into each other right away even with their clothes on.  Even though she criticized the film Hiroshima, My Love of being a male fantasy she is actually living it in this affair.

There is a price to pay for passion and unfortunately for Héléne is the one that has to do the paying.  The affair does not seem to be affecting Alexandré as much as Hélène as we see her start to lose herself.  She starts to forget the fact that she has a son as you see him locked out of the house because she is daydreaming. She also tells him to go to sleep at his friend’s house because she wants to see Alexandré.  At one point she almost ran her son over as she forgot that he had to get his equipment in the trunk of the car before his soccer game.   This causes a visit from her ex-husband in which he knows that she is having an affair.  She is also having a difficult time doing her lectures because sometimes that phone call from Alexandré is much more important than her students.  She also goes off on a costly trip to Moscow to stalk him as she was able to get more information about his whereabouts.  Anyone that looks as remotely as close as him, she starts to call his name out thinking that he would turn around and smile.  The being the latter half of the film shows the recovery of Hélène after this steamy affair.

Many critics would say that they were bombarded with all the nudity and sex scenes but what they are forgetting is the premise of this film which is all about passion and how it comes and goes.  Director Danielle Arbid does not lose sight of this and gets both Sergei Polunin and Laetitia Dosch to turn up the heat.  Other critics would say that the character of Hélène is one-dimensional and she does not pay a hefty price to be taking part in this high-class affair.  How much should she lose when there were so many restrictions that were laid down to this affair, to begin with.  Who knows?  Maybe this was all an imaginary relationship that was built in her head to make her thesis that much better which may be the reason why she didn’t lose that much.  What she gained from the whole ordeal was that there was much life that was brought into her from this and that she knows where she stands after.  There is no real message that comes from Simple Passion but sometimes no message is the best message of all.   That’s the biggest risk that director Danielle Arbid had to take.