E-Love - Faster than Real Life - DVD

Film: Paule Zachmann (Anne Consigny), professor and mother of a 15-year-old daughter, is blindsided when her husband leaves her shortly before her 50th birthday. Although he initially sells it as a short break, the moment Paule sees her faithless husband with a younger woman at the latest, she realizes that their marriage is at an end. Paule falls into a deep hole and, precisely because the big 50 is just around the corner, believes that she will have to spend the rest of her life alone. But her sister gets her to sign up for the online dating site Soulmates. Even if she doesn't find the love of her life there, at least she can have some fun to get over her failed marriage. And so Paule starts to meet different men and to rediscover herself and her sexuality. But how many frogs will she have to kiss before she finds a Prince Charming?

E-Love is a nice tragicomedy that offers a fairly authentic look into the world of online dating. True, some of the men Paule dates are portrayed a bit over the top for a laugh or two. However, the very hopes Paule has for dating at the beginning and the way she changes over the course of a few casual affairs is portrayed quite realistically. This is especially to the credit of Anne Consigny (Butterfly and Diving Bell), who embodies a woman thrown off the orderly tracks of her life in search of new meaning, new love, and ultimately herself with a believability that shifts from vulnerability to sensuality and confidence.

Director Anne Villacèque beautifully demonstrates how the rules of internet dating differ from traditional dating, and how the image one reveals of oneself online can differ from reality. The fact that she still goes about it in a very sensitive way, foregoing big, all too obvious laughs and instead concentrating on the changing soul of her main character in a rather quiet way, makes this film well worth seeing. Admittedly, this production, which was made in cooperation with arte France, always stays on the level of a good TV movie and lacks a bit more emotional warmth that would let the viewer share even more in Paule's fate. But all in all, this unusual search for love can definitely be called successful. And the very nice finale then also compensates for the one or other dramaturgical hanger.

Who appreciates French movies, which are somewhere between drama and comedy, and who wants to be carried away by good actors into the world of online dating, can be recommended to E-Love.

Picture + Sound: Image and sound quality of the DVD are on a good level, with the film throughout the character of a TV production. The image sharpness, for example, is decent, but never reaches the level of current theatrical films. The color scheme is very coherent and is able to capture the atmosphere of the story very well. The sound is largely unspectacular and is primarily carried by the dialogue. The fact that there is only a stereo mix is therefore hardly a negative weight. Good.

Extras: Bonus material has the DVD not to offer.

Conclusion: E-Love - Faster than Real Life is a fairly entertaining mix of drama and comedy, with the film kept alive in particular by lead actress Anne Consigny. Her convincing performance in the end raises the film just above the level of a simple TV movie and makes the desperate search of a woman around 50 for the second great love still well worth seeing for friends of French cinema - even if the DVD only has the film and no bonus material to offer.

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp