''Un plus une'' ("One plus one", with the 'one's being grammatically masculine and feminine respectively) is a 2015 French

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film directed by

Claude Lelouch Claude Barruck Joseph Lelouch (; born 30 October 1937) is a French film director, writer, cinematographer, actor and producer. Lelouch grew up in an Algerian Jewish Family. He emerged as a prominent director in the 1960s. Lelouch gained criti ...

and starring

Jean Dujardin Jean Edmond Dujardin (; born 19 June 1972) is a French actor and comedian. He began his career as a stand-up comedian in Paris before guest starring in comedic television programmes and films. He first came to prominence with the cult TV series ...

Elsa Zylberstein Elsa Zylberstein (born Elsa Florence Zylbersztejn, 16 October 1968) is a French film, TV, and stage actress. After studying drama, Zylberstein began her film career in 1989, and has appeared in more than 60 films. She won the César Award for Be ...

, Christopher Lambert, and Alice Pol. It was shown in the Special Presentations section of the

2015 Toronto International Film Festival The 40th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 10 to 20 September 2015. On 28 July 2015 the first wave of films to be screened at the Festival was announced. Jean-Marc Vallée's '' Demolition'' starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Na ...

. Through a range of settings, such as a striking sequence filmed at the banks of the

Ganges The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

, the leads convey their characters’ friendship and romantic attraction.

Plot

A getaway car with two robbers knocks a woman off her bicycle. One robber forces the other out of the car so he can go back and help. He takes her to hospital and is arrested. This incident inspires Indian director Rahul Abhi (Rahul Vohra) to make a film (which he calls ''Juliette and Romeo'', insisting the female comes first) starring the man and woman as themselves. He hires Antoine Abeilard (

), a famed film composer, to travel to India to score the film. Immediately upon landing Antoine is proposed to over the phone by his pianist girlfriend ( Alice Pol) but does not respond. The French ambassador to India, Samuel ( Christophe Lambert), hosts a dinner for Antoine. Samuel becomes jealous when his New Age obsessed much younger wife Anna Hamon (

) pays a lot of attention to Antoine and she flees to Antoine after her husband yells at her. The pair become friends and she talks a lot about spiriturality including the miraculous events surrounding Amma, the "hugging saint", despite describing Antoine as a pragmatist who is not open to the supernatural. Her emotional interest compels Antoine to follow her on a “fertility pilgrimage”. She and Samuel, a man she seems to admire without passion, have been trying to conceive a child. Anna is hopeful that participating in a ritual Hindu gathering will help her conceive. Antoine follows Anna to find a cure for his troubling headaches though he is equally drawn to Anna's company. The pair travels to the holy city of

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

where they interact with various local people including

sadhu ''Sadhu'' ( sa, साधु, IAST: ' (male), ''sādhvī'' or ''sādhvīne'' (female)), also spelled ''saddhu'', is a religious ascetic, mendicant or any holy person in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism who has renounced the worldly life. ...

s. As they travel south to

Amritapuri Amritapuri, originally Parayakadavu, is the main Ashram of Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, the spiritual master, also called "the hugging saint" or Amma, which means 'mother' in many South Indian languages. This place is also the international headq ...

, to receive an embrace from Amma, Antoine says she has been sending her signals of a sexual nature, especially bathing in the Ganges in a blouse that became transparent, but she insists that was a spiritual cleansing only and the pair agree they are just friends. Other conversations include flashback stories of meeting their current partners (Antoine met Alice when she was playing piano on the street. Anna met Samuel as he was leaving the embassy when she was distraught after having her passport stolen; he pretended to be the ambassador's chauffeur and Anna says she fell in love with him as the chauffeur before he revealed he was the ambassador; we also see a contemporary event where Alice has arrived in India and Samuel, again pretending to be the chauffeur, picks her up at the airport). Antoine and Anna are both embraced by Amma. Following this they are shown having sex in their hotel room. Alice arrives at Antoine's hotel with a loaded revolver and sees them having sex and shoots at them. The scene cuts to Anna waking revealing that was a dream. Their conversation over breakfast reveals that they did have sex, with Antoine apologising and saying he did poorly, but Anna saying he did 'hit the right buttons'. Samuel calls Anna. He is upset that Anna did not answer her phone the previous night, asks if Antoine is around and has had his headaches removed, and is surprised to hear that Anna will fly back given her fear of flying. He lies saying that the piano playing in the background is the tuner when in fact it is Alice who has spent the night with Samuel. When the call ends, Anna says she will tell Samuel because he will forgive her if she is upfront. Then Alice calls and Antoine says his headaches are better and that he doesn't want to stay at the embassy any longer. The four meet at the airport and the ambassador says that being unable to reach Anna on her phone, or on the hotel phone, he was worried and called Alice early in the morning, and, being so upset, he kissed her and they embraced for a long time (implying they had sex), saying it was proper for them to tell their respective partners and implying he knows Antoine and Anna have been unfaithful. Without any prevarication, Antoine immediately asks if Alice forgives him and she says no. He leaves without Alice accompanying him. Anna apologises to Samuel but he also says he does not forgive her. Anna leaves, implying their relationship is over. Alice then asks why Samuel lied (since they had done nothing sexual). He says they could have and should have had sex. Alice leaves saying she is going to see Amma and she does. About four or five years later, Antoine arrives in France. At the airport he hears a woman shouting after her child also called Antoine and sees that the woman is Anna. He learns that the boy is his four-year-old son. They part after just a few moments. Their cars end up driving next to each other for a few seconds and the boy makes shooting gestures which Antoine imitates. Anna goes to her parents' long boat (passing signage advertising Alice as a soloist pianist) and Antoine's father stops their car at the same place. Antoine exits the car but does nothing. While Antoine has lunch with his father Anna watches ''Juliette and Romeo'' (describing it as a love story, a story about people who love each other but fight) for the first time and then Antoine boards Anna's parents' home. Little Antoine goes to investigate the noise, says it is the man from the airport, and Anna smiles broadly as she goes up the stairs to greet Antoine. The scene cuts to Anna and Antoine being hugged by Amma at the same time. In a post credits scene, Anna and Antoine are seen dancing together in India dressed in Indian style as bride and groom.

Cast

as Antoine Abeilard *

as Anna Hamon * Christopher Lambert as Samuel Hamon * Alice Pol as Alice Hanel * Rahul Vohra as Rahul Abhi *

Shriya Pilgaonkar Shriya Pilgaonkar is an Indian actress, director, producer, and stage performer. She is the daughter of actors Sachin and Supriya Pilgaonkar. Early life Shriya is the only child of famed Marathi actors Sachin and Supriya Pilgaonkar. As a c ...

as Ayanna * Abhishek Krishnan as Sanjay *

Venantino Venantini Venantino Venantini (17 April 1930 – 9 October 2018) was an Italian film actor.Mata Amritanandamayi Mātā Amritānandamayī Devī (born Sudhamani Idamannel; 27 September 1953), often known as Amma ("Mother"), is an Indian Hindu spiritual leader, guru and humanitarian, who is revered as 'the hugging saint' by her followers. In 2018, she w ...

(Amma) as herself

Production

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

began on 6 January 2015 and took place over a period of six weeks in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

, and

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

. Some parts were filmed in

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

at the ashram of

Mata Amritanandamayi Mātā Amritānandamayī Devī (born Sudhamani Idamannel; 27 September 1953), often known as Amma ("Mother"), is an Indian Hindu spiritual leader, guru and humanitarian, who is revered as 'the hugging saint' by her followers. In 2018, she w ...

Accolades

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Un Plus Une 2015 films 2015 romantic comedy films French romantic comedy films 2010s French-language films Films directed by Claude Lelouch Films scored by Francis Lai Films set in India Films set in Uttar Pradesh Films set in Delhi Films set in Kerala Films set in Rajasthan Films set in Mumbai Films shot in Mumbai Films shot in Varanasi Films shot in Delhi Films shot in Thiruvananthapuram Films shot in Kollam Films shot in Rajasthan Films shot in Uttar Pradesh 2010s French films