my first thought was , " oh god , another one of those pretentious foreign art house sex films . " the opening shot features one of those busy parisian streets , the locals hustling by in a blur of slow motion . this city tells a thousand stories , my friends , and an affair of love is one of them . as if to add insult to injury , our first actual scenes are of the woman ( nathalie baye , day for night ) and man ( sergi lópez ) after the affair , being interviewed by some off-screen voice . it's very when harry met sally , only with the added layer of being french lovers talking about their passionate encounters . hoo boy , this is gonna be a long road , isn't it ? we learn that the woman placed an ad in a magazine . of all the potential candidates , this man seemed the most interesting . he's handsome in a boyish sort of way , seemingly affable if slightly dorky . she's a little older than he is , more world-wise , more open to experience and experiment . they don't tell each other their names , ages , professions , where they live . it was meant to be nothing personal . after the round of interview footage , affair goes back in time to their first encounter at a cafe . she's already booked a room . through a series of nervous false starts , they make it through a halting conversation . at the hotel , it seems an eternity for the desk clerk to ring up the man's credit card , then they take the long walk up the stairs and down the hallway , through the bright red door . it suddenly dawned on me that perhaps half an hour had gone by in the blink of an eye . i was utterly enthralled by every small nuance of this encounter , every beat of silence . nathalie baye's face is lined with age . perhaps she's in her mid-40s , but very fit for a woman who might have mothered children . her eyes flicker and dance , but she's not the type to give much away . bright , courteous , sexually open - she's interesting even though we know very little about her . all we can tell , as the man freely admits , is that she's a real woman . in today's age where attractive girls are all models and pin-ups , this film finds beauty in the normal lady walking down the street . sergi lópez makes for a nice foil . he's a little tubby and hairy , but he doesn't take himself too seriously . he has friendly , soft eyes , and a mouth which is quick to smile . at the first meeting , he's perhaps a little more nervous than she . he does order a cognac to brace himself . their first sexual encounter , which is built up to so vividly , remains behind closed doors . maybe that's as it should be . for a film about sex , there isn't very much of it shown during the film . in a way , this makes it all the sweeter as we watch them during their second meeting at the cafe . once more we don't see their amour . after the hotel , that second time , the man works up the courage to ask her to dinner later that night . on they go , never learning where the other lives . they keep much as a mystery from each other , but reveal enough to keep us interested . maybe that's the nature of affairs , especially sexual ones . the secrets . the film runs a little over ninety minutes . it's never dull . i could have done without the frequent voice-overs , which run over scenes where i might have preferred to hear the naturalistic dialogue between the lovers . i'm also no big fan of self-conscious " interview " footage , which only served to make me wonder how the documentarian tracked them down . these faults , while glaring , are forgiven because the rest of the film feels so alluring , so sexy and smart . they meet , they talk , they make love and , slowly , grow closer . there are many scenes where they talk frankly about sex . as for the actual onscreen lovemaking , it is kept to a minimum , but there's a startling scene midway which has them in bed slowly working their way toward orgasm . this is not the sex of hollywood gloss , or even of art house decadence , or even of pornography . sex in american films is either a marathon , a farce , a music video , or a tragedy . an affair of love is all of the above , only less self-important . it's insubstantial , but that's pretty much the point . they only had what they had and the rest is in their memories . so it is for the viewer , too . maybe it's only worth a rental , but that's more than what you'd expect walking in . 
