What does Anaïs run – and run? That’s the question slyly teased in “Anaïs in Love,” a French romance about a woman’s tortuous journey toward self-discovery. Like Anaïs herself, the contours of that journey seem transparent at first glance: she is young, self-centered, extremely restless, and she just needs to get her act together. But while all these frenetic moves can seem a little charming (like them), it can also be annoying (like them), which makes Anaïs and this film more intriguing than they initially seem.
The first time you see the fast-moving Anaïs (Anaïs Demoustier in a happy, full-on rendition), she’s a colorful haze sprinting to her Paris apartment, with the camera and soundtrack racing with her. Anaïs, a college graduate, is behind on rent and rushes to meet her landlord. She has an explanation, of course, and as her stunned landlord encourages her to pay, Anaïs rushes through the flat, discussing her troubles, changing clothes and installing a fire alarm, a harbinger of future fires. The words fly by, as does Anaïs, who walked out within minutes, after testing the patience of both landlord and viewer.
Writer-director Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet, who is making her feature film debut, treats the opener with economy, confidence, light comedy and a sense of choreographed chaos. Still, as Anaïs continued to sprint and run, I scribbled grumpily in my notes that the filmmaker was testing our patience with this girl. I was right, although not exactly. What took a while to understand is that there is no need to love Anaïs. What’s crucial is that you stick with her, that you listen to what she says and don’t say, that you look under the timidity to get a handle on what makes this woman tick – that you see her for who she is.
“Anaïs in Love” seems simple. It looks crisp and clear and moves as fast as its protagonist, with the editing and lively music doing a more striking job than the discreet cinematography. Bourgeois-Tacquet works within an early 21st century realistic Euro-art film idiom, and the world she creates is familiar, precise and attractive. There is no point or plot, it seems, just loosely strung scenes with Anaïs rustling here and there, visiting people and places. As she does so, bit by bit Anaïs comes to the fore in conversations and in her good and bad choices, a fragmentation that encourages you to fit the buzzing parts together.