''The Names of Love'' () is a 2010 French

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and Romance novel, romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Ro ...

film directed by

Michel Leclerc Michel Leclerc (born 24 April 1965) is a French director and screenwriter. Career During the 1990s, Leclerc worked as a TV editor and cameraman. He also wrote and directed a number of shorts. For years, he was a columnist on television shows suc ...

, written by Leclerc and Baya Kasmi, and produced by Antoine Rein, Fabrice Goldstein and Caroline Adrian. The film recorded 764,821 admissions in Europe. It was awarded two

César Award Cesar or César may refer to: Arts and entertainment * César (film), ''César'' (film), a 1936 French romantic drama * César (film), ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt Places * Cesar, Portugal * Cesar Department, Colombia * Cesar R ...

s in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

, including

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress award ...

for

Sara Forestier Sara Forestier (born 4 October 1986) is a French actress, film director and screenwriter. Life and career Forestier was born in Denmark to French parents working there as ambassadors for the French Foreign Legion. She began her film career in 200 ...

and

Best Original Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award (also known as an Oscar) for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best ...

Plot

The film portrays the life of a Parisien scatter-brained and free-spirited, young

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

activist who sleeps with her political opposites in order to convert them to her politics, until she meets her match. It includes references to

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

, the

Algerian War The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) ''; '' (and sometimes in Algeria as the ''War of 1 November'') was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (Algeri ...

and

child sexual abuse Child sexual abuse (CSA), also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in Human sexual activity, sexual activit ...

Cast

Jacques Gamblin Jacques Gamblin is a French actor. Life and career Gamblin studied at the Centre dramatique de Caen (Caen Dramatic Arts Centre). He was a professional technician in a theater company before he studied at the Comédie de Caen and acted on st ...

as Arthur Martin *

as Bahia Benmahmoud *

Zinedine Soualem Zinedine Soualem (born 17 April 1957) is a French actor. He has appeared in at least five films directed by Cédric Klapisch. Personal life Soualem is Algerian by ancestry, and was at one point married to the actress Hiam Abbass Hiam Abb ...

as Mohamed Benmahmoud *

Carole Franck Carole Franck is a French actress. Filmography Dubbing Theatre References External links * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Franck, Carole Living people French film actresses French television actresses Actresses from Paris 20th-century Fre ...

as Cécile Delivet Benmahmoud *

Jacques Boudet Jacques Boudet (15 April 1935 – 15 July 2024) was a French stage and screen actor. He had great success in the 1980s with his appearance in ''Exercises in Style'', and is featured in the film '' The Names of Love'' (2010). Career In cinema, ...

as Lucien Martin *

Michèle Moretti Michèle Moretti (born 15 March 1940 in Paris, France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, ...

as Annette Martin *

Zakariya Gouram Zakariya may refer to: People * Zakariya, the father of John the Baptist ( Yahya) in Islam *Zakariya (name), a common personal name in West Asia Places *Zakariya, Iran, a village in western Iran *Zakaria, Iran, a village in northeastern Iran *Az-Z ...

as Hassan Hassini *

Antoine Michel Antoine Michel is a French actor. Originating from Paris, France, Michel has been featured in commercials and magazine ads since he was five. As a teenager, he toured all of France in various theatre companies. His breakthrough role came in 2 ...

as photographer The former

French Prime Minister The prime minister of France (), officially the prime minister of the French Republic (''Premier ministre de la République française''), is the head of government of the French Republic and the leader of its Council of Ministers. The prime m ...

Lionel Jospin Lionel Robert Jospin (; born 12 July 1937) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002. Jospin was First Secretary of the French Socialist Party, First Secretary of the Socialist Party from 1995 to 1997 and th ...

makes a cameo appearance.

Production

In the scene one in which Forestier wearing only boots walks through the Paris streets and

Metro Metro may refer to: Geography * Metro City (Indonesia), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urban area with high ...

, most of the people she encounters were unaware that a movie was being shot.

Reception

''The Names of Love'' received generally positive reviews.

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

gives the film an aggregate score of 72%, based on 53 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The film also has a score of 62 out of 100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, based on 19 reviews.

References

External links

* * 2010 films 2010s sex comedy films César Award winners French sex comedy films 2010s French-language films French romantic comedy films Films directed by Michel Leclerc 2010 romantic comedy films Films featuring a Best Actress César Award–winning performance 2010s French films French-language romantic comedy films French-language sex comedy films {{2010s-France-film-stub