Weekend films

'The Chances of Love', a poignant drama to end the year on a high note

Leading among the new releases of the last days of 2024 is the splendid film by Stéphane Brizé starring Guillaume Canet and Alba Rohrwacher

by Andrea Chimento

26 December 2024

2' min read

Key points

An "off-season" love affair

2' min read

One of the most exciting films of recent years is the star of this 2024 theatrical wrap-up: Stéphane Brizé's 'The Occasions of Love' finally arrives in cinemas, after its presentation at the Venice Film Festival 2023, and is a simply unmissable film to watch during the festive season.

The director of the beautiful 'labour trilogy' (consisting of 'The Law of the Market', 'At War' and 'Another World'), Brizé this time devotes himself to a melodramatic story centred on tormented love.

The protagonists are Mathieu, a famous actor living in Paris, and Alice, a piano teacher from a small seaside resort. Fifteen years earlier, the two were in love, but time has torn them apart, led them down different paths and the wounds of their relationship have slowly healed. One day, however, they meet again, perhaps by chance.

With his usual dramaturgical force, Brizé reflects on those existential choices capable of generating regrets and questions that we constantly carry within us: what would have happened if we had gone to that appointment or taken one road instead of another?

'The Chances of Love' starts from this premise, describing human feelings in a profound and touching way, in a beautifully shot film that is perfectly calibrated in its visual and sound editing times.

If the first part of the feature film recalls comedic tones, thanks mainly to Canet's mimicry and his experiences in the hotel where he lives, as the minutes pass, the film becomes increasingly poignant, effective in portraying a feeling that is as passionate as it is now impossible to revive completely.

An 'off-season' love

It should be remembered that the original title is the beautiful 'Hors-saison', ideal both to represent this 'off-season' holiday of the protagonist and to describe a relationship that has now run its course.

Brizé is a master in handling shots and plays from the outset on geometric trajectories, deeply symbolic and capable of giving rise to numerous interpretations: from the sea, as restless as the love between the two characters, to the soundtrack choices that punctuate the features and the emotional storms that seize the two protagonists during the narrative.

Guillaume Canet does his duty, while Alba Rohrwacher finds one of the performances worth a career, being simply extraordinary in a very complicated role, which increases even more the involvement for a film that is already exciting from beginning to end.

Brizé is one of the greats of contemporary cinema and this film, if proof were needed, confirms this once again.