Love Affair(s) 2020

During a quiet rural vacation, Daphné, Camélia Jordana, who is three months pregnant, shares the moments of life with François, Vincent Macaigne, before he is forced to return to Paris for work. Left alone, Daphné is joined by Maxime, Niels Schneider, a cousin she has never met, who arrives to stay for four days. What follows is a slow, intimate exchange of memories and present worries as the two newcomers confront their own loves and losses while the scenery shifts from countryside calm to the murmur of city life.

Maxime, Niels Schneider, is a writer-in-progress who narrates his encounter with Victoire, Julia Piaton, a woman drawn to him. After a brief, hopeful affair, Victoire reveals she is married and moving to Japan with her husband. At a farewell party, she introduces Maxime to her sister Sandra, Jenna Thiam, who was once his childhood sweetheart but has since moved on. Maxime’s room-mate, Gaspard, Guillaume Gouix, moves in with Sandra and her aunt’s sprawling apartment, weaving a new, complicated domestic tapestry. The relationship between Sandra and Gaspard waxes and wanes, giving Maxime a glimmer of hope until he discovers they continue to meet in secret, prompting him to move out and seek his own space. Meanwhile, Daphné recounts how she first met François—an older documentary filmmaker for whom she worked as an editor but whom she loved without reciprocity, a memory that colors her present choices and desires.

After laying bare their experiences, Daphné and Maxime unexpectedly cross paths with Victoire again on a walk. Victoire has separated from her husband in Japan, she is three months pregnant, and she remains nearby, staying with her mother. The revelation does little to ease the pull between the three, and the line between friendship and romance becomes increasingly blurred as their lives intertwine in unforeseen ways.

Back in Paris, François learns that his ex-wife Louise, Émilie Dequenne, has discovered his ongoing relationship with Daphné. As Daphné and Maxime have already begun an affair, François returns home to confront the mix of guilt, longing, and unresolved feelings that have taken hold. Rather than making a firm stand, he chooses to stay with Daphné, though his own heart remains unsettled and uncertain, a tension that threads through the days that follow. The tension among love, loyalty, and truth undercuts the stability each character seeks, leaving them to navigate a fragile balance of affection and honesty.

Months pass, and life resumes its quiet rhythm, but the moment of clarity remains elusive. One day, Daphné spots Maxime shopping for Christmas trees in Paris, and the sight unsettles her as she notices he is with Victoire. The sighting reopens old questions and nudges her toward a choice between the past she thought she understood and the complicated present she is living with François. In the end, she turns back toward François, a testament to how desire, memory, and the ache for connection refuse to be neatly resolved.