Liaison Pornographique, Une

Synopsis: Via a contacts column in a porno magazine two Parisians (Nathalie Bayé and Sergi Lopez) meet to indulge their sexual fantasy. Over a six month period they find themselves falling in love and must deal with their feelings.

The title of Une Liaison Pornographique will either entice or repel, depending on one’s inclinations. Neither response would be justified. Taking on the essential Gallic preoccupations with sex and probably even more important, talking about sex, subject matter already seen in innumerable filmic variants, this outing does achieve a modest poignancy. Mercifully, it is free of the usual ingredients of similarly-oriented French films – a ludicrous plot, designer clothes and leggy young women in mini-skirts. Rather the protagonists (albeit with the usual concessions to being photogenic) are middle bourgeoisie of unremarkable character who, as so many Parisians seem to do if we judge by the films made about them, fall prey to the sexual fantasies nurtured in their idleness. It could well be argued that this film offers a paradigmatic example of identification and escape for such an audience.

That may sound titillating but we never find out what their mutual fantasy was (it is alluded to at the beginning and end but has no apparent significance to their relationship), let alone see any of it and the film is in fact a description of a relationship that differs from any other only in being stripped of the usual hesitant preamble (if only all relationships could be like this, you might well say). I can imagine thirty years ago this film being quite radical but after three decades of permissiveness what is of interest here?

Although the woman is the dominant member of the pair, unlike another French film we’ve seen this year Romance, this film offers nothing new in either approach or execution. The relationship steps out a conventional path of attraction, engagement and happiness, followed by disillusion as familiarity does its work. In this respect Liaison takes on another endemic theme of French film – the conflict between the security of the known and the attraction of the unknown. Here we have two ordinary people who have accidentally and briefly opened a door to another world. How they respond and whether the head or the heart rules becomes the substance of the film. That’s where the modest poignancy comes in.

Unfortunately, the ordinariness of the characters is echoed by the dialogue (at least in the sub-titles) and the direction. This may well be by design but does not make for a particularly interesting film. The attempt to inject depth or verisimilitude into the subject by varying the memories of the 2 protagonists (the affair is told in flashback as they are interviewed by an unseen interlocutor) is rather laboured and the whole thing comes across as too contrived (where do this pair find the time/money for their regular daytime asssignations?) with Lopez in particular a little too decently charming. The Parisian locations, with Guimard’s cast-iron Metro entrances or the Eiffel Tower glimpsed gratuitously in the background seem cheap shots at pleasing the international market. If there is one aspect that shines it is Nathalie Bayé. Although make-up and wardrobe are not the kindest, her restrained performance mollifies what would otherwise be a painfully dull experience.

 

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