Passion Simple
Director: Danielle Arbid
Writer: Danielle Arbid
Based on: Annie Ernaux’s novel
Cast: Laetitia Dosch, Sergei Polunin, Lou-Teymour Thion, Caroline Ducey, Grégoire Colin, Slimane Dazi
Seen on: 6.10.2025

Plot:
Hélène (Laetitia Dosch) is a divorced professor who lives with her tween son Paul (Lou-Teymou Thion). But most of her energy goes to the affair she has with Alexandre (Sergei Polunin), a married Russian who works at the embassy. The affair is very passionate and completely on Alexandre’s terms. Hélène finds herself more and more obsessed with him, trying to push the boundaries of their more or less implicit agreement.

Passion Simple is a well-made film, but one that falls a little flat because Alexandre remains flat. It is not bad to watch, but it is not a movie with much staying power.

Passion Simple has a lot of sex as Hélène and Alexandre’s relationship is primarily physical. When I realized that Polunin was playing Alexandre, I was excited at first, having lusted over him dancing a few years ago (10? 15?). But it doesn’t take long for trouble to start because we get a good view of his tattoos here, thanks to all the naked sex, and, well, there is a nazi tattoo on his belly and that was that for me. [There are also faces on his shoulders but I think at the time, there was no giant Putin there yet.] No more lusting for me, and it made it increasingly difficult to follow Hélène into her obsession with him.

I can understand it in theory: this mysterious man, obviously a little dangerous and off-limits in about 15 different ways gives Hélène the chance to re-invent herself, to discover something new about herself, to go on an adventure. She completely loses control and we get the distinct feeling that it is the first time in her life that she has allowed herself this loss. It is invigorating.

Unfortunately, despite Dosch giving a passionate performance, much of the allure of this situation stays theoretical. We don’t actually feel invigorated, we just see a woman who should know better spiraling so much that she starts to neglect her own child. And you want to tell her to wake up all the time.

If the film had managed to take us along into Hélène’s obsession instead of letting us remain on the outside of it, I think it would have been absolutely brilliant. Since Polunin and Alexandre didn’t work for me, the film unfortunately remained stale, though. (I’d be curious to read Ernaux’s novel, though, maybe it manages what I was hoping for here.)

Summarizing: could have been better.