No matter what your opinion is on Claire Denis‘ films (full disclosure: I’m not the biggest fan of her work myself), it’s impossible to deny her skills at making one hell of an image. The opening moments of Bastards merely continue to show how strong Denis, and her regular DP Agnès Godard, are at pulling people in. On a rainy night, a man (Laurent Grévill) is seen standing near an open window. Somewhere else, also at night but without any rain (one of many instances of screwing around with chronology in the film), a young woman (Lola Créton) is walking around the streets completely naked save for the high heels she’s wearing. The next scene, which shows paramedics covering up a body on the street, implies that the man in the first scene jumped to his death. How these two events link together is where Bastards starts.

The naked girl turns out to be the daughter of the man who killed himself. Marco (Vincent Lindon), the man’s brother-in-law, leaves his job and life on the seas as a captain to help deal with the situation. Marco’s sister (Julie Bataille) places the blame squarely on Edouard Laporte (Michel Subor), a wealthy financial figure who might have had a hand in the failure of the dead man’s business. Marco moves into an empty apartment below Laporte, presumably on some sort of mission for vengeance, and begins an affair with Laporte’s wife (Chiara Mastroianni). As Marco’s affair intensifies, and he investigates further into the relationship between Laporte and his brother-in-law, he starts discovering some dark and disturbing information.

Questions will run through the minds of anyone watching Bastards. Does Marco have real feelings for Laporte’s spouse, or is it just part of his plan? What exactly was the business relationship between Laporte and Marco’s family? What exactly happened to Marco’s niece? Bastards exists in a world where everything seems to be undefined or barely explained, leaving viewers to fill in the majority of the blanks. My assumption that Mastroianni is Laporte’s wife is only because they live together and have a child. It could be a long term relationship, or she could be a mistress of Laporte for all I know. Knowledge is hard to really obtain in Bastards, but it’s seemingly for the best. Every time something is suggested or divulged it implies a darker, more hideous truth barely lying underneath.

That feeling of dread and darkness permeates throughout, and Denis’ ability to evoke these emotions are masterful at times. Shortly after Marco helps Laporte’s son with his broken bicycle, there’s a random cutaway while Marco lies in bed: A distraught Mastroianni, walking around a forest with police until she comes upon her son’s bike. Could it be a flash forward, a hint of what’s to come, or just a fleeting thought in Marco’s mind? The scene is never touched upon again, but it certainly helps set a mood of pure discomfort. Plenty of moments in Bastards play out like this. An innocuous moment, like Laporte sitting with his son in a car, is shot by Denis in a way that suggests something far worse is going on. The fact that almost all of these scenes are never mentioned again only makes their implications far more disturbing.

As much as I enjoy Denis’ style in Bastards, it doesn’t work entirely. A subplot involving Créton and two other characters (Denis regulars Grégoire Colin and Florence Loiret Caille) gets obscure to the point of frustration. While other people thoroughly enjoy Denis’ elliptical approach, I’ve found that it can sometimes muddle an apparently simple piece of narrative information. The film’s conclusion also feels abrupt to the point of sucking out all of the dramatic weight from it. A major decision by one character is done in such a rushed, hasty manner that it loses much of its impact. That hastiness is thankfully made up for with the film’s final shocking scene (which, in a touch of some pitch black humour, is set to Tindersticks singing “Put your love in me”). Unlike the other Denis films I’ve seen, my issues with the narrative were thankfully much smaller than usual. On mood and atmosphere alone, Bastards is highly impressive and one of Denis’ strongest works.

There is nothing overly complicated about the French film Goodbye First Love, a story about a young woman who is torn between two men, one of which is her fist love that she cannot seem to get over. The other represents maturity, stableness, and security. Instead of complexity, writer/director Mia Hansen-Løve instead shows ordinary characters with common relationship quarrels, but the hands-off approach captures authenticity which is the film’s best asset.

It is evident in the opening scene that Sullivan (Sebastian Urzendowsky) and Camille (Lola Créton) love each other. In fact, they adore each other. Sullivan rides his bike on the streets of Paris to pick up a rose and some condoms before stopping at the apartment of 15 year-old Camille. After exchanging loving words it is then implied that the two make love.

Before the 10 minute mark Goodbye First Love sort of throws a curve ball. I say sort of because the title of the film indicates that this would happen. Sullivan reveals that he has plans to backpack around South America with two friends. His mother asks if Camille will be going with them to which his response is no.

Love is all that Camille lives for and she will be the first one to tell you that. She is a bit melodramatic but given that she and Sullivan have been together for a year it is easy to see why she gets frustrated with his lack of dependency on her. She knows that Sullivan is going on this expedition to South American but 10 months to her seems like a life time.

After all the great moments over the year of being together, the couple must say goodbye for a while. Saying goodbye is never easy but when you are an adolescent saying goodbye to your first love it is perceivably the most difficult thing to do in the world. She receives a few letters from him soon after he leaves but the frequency decreases over time until finally she stops getting letters all together.

The film then skips ahead about five years when Camille is in college studying to become an architect. She had no choice but to move on but you still get a sense that she holds on to a little piece of him. As she starts to fall for her much older professor she sees Sullivan’s mother on the bus and leaves her number for him to call.

The two eventually do meet to catch up on things shortly after. Neither of them are outwardly excited to see each other. He does apologize for hurting her way back when but both agree that what they felt back then now feels like a different person in a different live. But still she cannot stop loving him and she cannot figure out why.

Often times it is not the person that you miss but the idea of that person, which is what Camille experiences here. You miss what that person represents even though the person may not be right for you. I think we have all realized at one point that the things we hang on to are sometimes silly and unexplainable but for one reason or another we still cling.

You will see nothing but what would occur in everyday life in Goodbye First Love. To some viewers that will be frustrating as they may be expecting the film to introduce a movie like consequence that dramatically changes the plot. I suspect they would pass the film off as boring instead of appreciate how real life like it is.

Lola Créton was terrific in her performance playing the girl that could not shake her first love. Her character often demanded teary-eyes and lustfulness but on the flip side she is depressed for more than half of the film. Créton does not miss a beat.

Do not go into Goodbye First Love expecting more out of the plot than what the title suggests. It is a very accurate depiction of first love and how difficult it is, if ever, to let go of it. The French director used healthy amounts of symbolism in the film, most notably when the hat Sullivan buys for her travels down the river. But the best thing the film accomplishes is how it was able to capture the heartache of adolescent love without pulling any over-the-top stunts.

Straight out of France is the new romantic drama Goodbye First Love, which looks to have lots of potential. The film stars Lola Creton as a young woman who is having a hard time saying goodbye to her first love. It looks to be a slow burning film about both the passion and hard-break that comes from love. From the trailer preview Goodbye First Love looks to be nothing if not honest.

UPDATE: Read our movie review of Goodbye First Love.

Official trailer for Goodbye First Love: