Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno (2017)

Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno (2017). 3h 1m

“I am surprised with the marks given by Imdbu0026#39;s users. Three years after seeing this film I still think about it, its music, its caracters, its mood accompany me.nMektoub My Love is a great movie, maybe not a masterpiece you would re-watch on an on but itu0026#39;s a great film, with a proper mood and a sensitive artistic touch. Among other things, it features a great sensuality and some brilliant actors (most of them are beginners and turn out to be really good especially Ophelie Bau who delivers a promising performance).nAbdellatif Khechiche has this capacity to take the best out of his actors, he is also capable of captivating and bewitching his audience in a multi sensory journey. Khechiche does not make entertainment, itu0026#39;s not an action movie you should be looking for, itu0026#39;s a travel into his adolescence in the South of France, an ode to the youth, the non-endind summer and the awakening of desire.nI think this film, a bit like u0026quot;La graine et le muletu0026quot; which also took place in Sète (France), is very personal for the director. In fact, the heroe, Amin, looks like Abdelatif Khechiche himself (a young French man with arab origins who studies cinema…), the seaside resort he depicts really exists and you canu0026#39;t help thinking heu0026#39;s put some of his personal affairs in this story.nWhat is interesting in Khechicheu0026#39;s cinema is how he shows the awakening of desire and the aesthetics chosen. I believe critics define it as naturalist cinema, a cinema that focuses on the flesh, the bodies, the lips sometimes even the driblle with an unmissable focus on the curves of women ; itu0026#39;s a cinema with a strong eroticization of the body but itu0026#39;s also a cinema that requires time, some scenes can be very long and Khechiche does it on purpose to insist on the desire felt, the games of seduction or to insist on the lenght of the night. Mektoub my love is a brilliant example of what Khechiche does best in that sense.nAlong with all that, the film features a social accuracy that gives a true insight to the film. Itu0026#39;s not only about the birth of desire at the age of 20, itu0026#39;s also about a certain category of youth and summer loves. His cinema is always very realistic, you can feel the mood of a seaside resort, you understand its youth, its seduction games and you feel so comfortable that you would appreciate being part of the film actually.nLike in u0026quot;La vie du0026#39;Adèleu0026quot;, Khechiche goes very far into the eroticization of the bodies and the scenes at the beach (so beautiful…all of them), in the night club (slightly long I admitt) and the never ending approches between young adults reflect so well his cinema and the theme chosen : the birth of desire and sexuality at a young age.nIf you take your time (I think itu0026#39;s the key) and let you drift by Khechicheu0026#39;s poetry, you will certainly fall in love and enjoy being young (again) for the length of the movie.”