Released on October 16, Gilles Lellouche’s latest production has become a real phenomenon in theaters with already nearly 3 million admissions.
It’s not just love that’s “wow”. The latest production by Gilles Lellouche, phew love which tells the passionate but tortured love story of two adolescents from different social origins over several years is already one of the biggest French successes of the year 2024. Since its release on October 16, the film has almost 3 million admissions, which already makes it the most popular French production at the cinema of the year 2024.
If the French went en masse to cinemas during the month of October (+10.8% admissions over one year according to the National Cinema Center), the success of phew love is multi-factorial. Supported by a five-star cast (François Civil, Adèle Exarchopoulos to name only the main duo), a promotion carried out with great success, but also excellent word of mouth for a release in the middle of the All Saints’ holiday, Gilles’ film Lellouche has above all achieved the feat of reaching the teenage audience. On social networks, and in particular TikTok, many people comment on extracts from the film.
According to a study by the Vertigo institute, 29% of spectators of phew love are aged 14 to 25, thus competing with American blockbusters, such as Deadpool & Wolverine (27%) or Dune: part 2 (25%). This film about a vibrant first love set against a backdrop of gang war is indeed a dream for the younger generation. With such figures, phew love seems to have a nice road ahead of him. If the feature film is therefore indeed in the top 10 of the most seen films in France at the cinema, it still remains far behind the two most popular French productions of the year, namely A little something extra (10 million entries) and The Counts of Monte Cristo (9 million entries).
Synopsis – The 80s, in the north of France. Jackie and Clotaire grew up between the high school benches and the port docks. She studies, he hangs out. And then their destinies intersect and it’s mad love. Life will try to separate them but nothing works, these two are like the two ventricles of the same heart.
The public was waiting phew love firm footing, but for critics, the Cannes screening, a veritable whirlwind of images and music, was nevertheless a cold shower. Overall, press reviews are quite mixed. Some have let themselves be carried away by the gesture of cinema, like Première which salutes “the generosity” demonstrated by Lellouche, who does a lot, sometimes too much, but who ends up seducing with his sincerity. Le Parisien hails a “vibrant and romantic” film with fiery staging and moving actors (Malik Frikah is notably unanimously praised for his first role in the cinema), while denouncing the complacency shown by the film towards the violence shown by the protagonist played by François Civil. For The Huffington Post, if the love story made of violence and dependence depicted “does not make you dream”, the feature film remains “wow to watch”.
More Love phew has its many detractors. Télérama deplores an “exhausting catch-all”. In detail, it is the lack of control that the cultural media criticizes and an “ambition that is a little too big for it”. Despite “a desire for cinema as sincere as it is noisy”, the director does a lot from a staging point of view and mixing genres, all served by “a very blue flower vision of love”, despite performances of actors praised. Les Inrocks is more categorical, considering that the film is “formally bloated and quite nauseating in its subject matter”. Same story for Le Point, which believes that “there is too much of everything like in a big pudding with disheveled romanticism and overflowing everywhere”. This did not prevent the film from receiving a 15-minute standing ovation at its Cannes premiere, a record for this edition… But from leaving empty-handed in terms of awards.
17 years of gestation
phew love is a film that Gilles Lellouche has wanted to direct for over 17 years. It was Benoît Poelvoorde who offered him the novel by the Irish writer Neville Thompson, Jackie Loves Johnser Ok ? published in 1997, advising him to make a film of it. For years, Gilles Lellouche tried to make an “ultra violent romantic comedy”, but the project was delayed. Finally, after the success of Great Bathfirst comedy directed by Gilles Lellouche, phew love is announced on the sidelines of the 2021 Cannes festival. We will have to wait three more years before the film is released in cinemas, the director writing the screenplay jointly with Audrey Diwan (The event, Emmanuelle…).
As its name suggests, phew love traces an epic love story as only cinema can tell, that of Jackie and Clotaire. They met as teenagers, in the 1980s in the North of France. While their social origins oppose them, they fall madly in love with each other. But when Clotaire is accused of committing a crime, he is sentenced to spend twelve years in prison and loses Jackie. When he leaves, aged 27, he is determined to win back the one he loves and make up for lost time.
Added to this novelistic and romantic scenario, the rumors of true romance between the two stars of the film (which annoy the two main interested parties who refuse to respond to them during the promo), it was enough to tickle curiosity.
A dream casting
phew loveit’s also a completely amazing casting. If Gilles Lellouche works “only” in directing and does not appear as an actor in the film, he has gathered around him the biggest names of the moment. François Civil (The three musketeers) and Adèle Exarchopoulos (Adèle’s life, I will always see your faces) play the two lovers as adults, when they are Mallory Wanecque (The Worst) and Malik Frikah (Apaches) who embody their adolescent versions. Around them, a myriad of supporting roles evolve: Alain Chabat (The city of fear), Benoît Poelvoorde (It happened near you, Podium), Vincent Lacoste (Lost illusions, Hippocrates), Jean-Pascal Zadi (Simply black, in place), Elodie Bouchez (I will always see your faces), Karim Leklou (BAC Nord, The world is yours), Raphaël Quenard (Yannick) and Anthony Bajon (Prayer) all come to respond to the protagonists.
Big budget
Pour phew loveGilles Lellouche saw things in a very big way: romantic drama, gangster film, ultra-violent scenes punctuated by dance scenes, reconstruction of the 1980s and 1990s, hits (The Bure, Prince…), direction slick and impactful photography… The disappointed press denounced a “catch-all” at the Cannes Film Festival, forcing Gilles Lellouche to partially revise his copy (the film is cut by 20 minutes compared to the version projected on the Croisette, Le Parisien tells us). As a result, filming took several months, many sets were used, and the team was expanded to 90 people. So much so that, according to the CNC, the film would have cost 35.7 million euros.
