To see at the cinema: Absurd and burlesque… You are not ready for this Belgian romantic comedy!

What is it about?

Remy and Sandra are unable to have children because they suffer from “past love syndrome”. There is only one solution: they have to sleep with all their exes once again.

Tired of predictable romantic comedies? Then the past love syndrome should apply to you! Directed by Ann Sirotti and Rafael Balboni, this comedy presents a completely eccentric starting point for his new film pitch.

After their first feature film A Mad Life, spotted at festivals, the Belgian tandem moves into the romance genre, but starting with a premise that’s as absurd as it is funny! A postulate that they call like the movie: Past Love Syndrome. What does it consist of? The couple will have to find all their exes and convince them to sleep with them in order to succeed in having a baby!

To justify the madness of this pitch, the tandem at the helm of the film does not hesitate to invoke a comedy like Hibernatus with Louis de Funes. The story may seem crazy and improbable, but it will be told seriously and scientifically and the rest will be left to the imagination of the audience.

As the directors point out in their note of intent, their idea was to “A burlesque fable that questions the complex interplay of love, sexuality and family“A crazy postulate, yes, but to question our love codes more seriously and broadly.”Initiating reflections on sexuality and reproduction in the context of comedy“.

Anne Sirotti and Raphael Balboni explain that “Tried to study the “outside” sexuality of the couple. Fantasy or concrete, all couples struggle with external urges, and managing desire is a big theme in any romantic contract.“.

The peculiarity of the film is to present the sex scenes in an inventive way, with a lot of poetry. No frontal images, but no nudity. On the other hand, everything is depicted symbolically.With hide-and-seek games in settings, with movement“. The tandem develops: “Nudity is treated in a humble and playful way: the body in its simplest form, the body in motion, invention and laughter.“The idea is to create.”A space with a special narrative status, which is slightly behind the naturalism of the rest of the film“.

Nora Hamzav and Florence Loiret-Kail in particular make fun appearances around the very cute couple created by Lucie DeBay and Lazarus Gousseau.

Find all the movie releases of the week

The hilarious Syndrome of Past Loves, which takes you to an “unexperienced and strange world, hybrid and atypical cinema, delusional and joyful dreams”, can be seen in theaters this Wednesday, October 25, 2023.