Les émotifs anonymes (France 2010)

Most film lovers are anonymous romantics. They are usually not the most extroverted people so they go to the cinema to experience the emotions they are missing in real life because they are too afraid of getting in contact with other people. Often those film lovers are also nostalgic people who crave for the good old times when everything was a little simpler (and when cinema had its boom time). 

Hence many audience members will be able to relate to the two main characters in "Les émotifs anonymes". Both of them are shy and suppress the feelings they discover for each other. Both of them live in the past and are unwilling to adapt to modern life. Their mutual passion is chocolate, the kind of hand-made chocolate you don't find in modern supermarkets. The predictable story of the film is an old-fashioned fairy tale but as so often with these kind of films it remains very watchable because of its charm. The retro decors and costumes are nicely done and the chocolates make one's mouth watery. The emotions are mostly lacking though. The two lead actors don't have a lot of chemistry and the beginning of their love affair is aptly awkward. For a film that wants to advocate a more tender approach to love than the one we have become accustomed to, they also end up in bed very quickly.
 
Nevertheless "Les émotifs anonymes" is a harmless film. Quite ordinary and in a way representative of the current Euro arthouse mediocrity but one that - for the reasons mentioned above - I find difficult not to like.

7/10

The way to a man's heart is through his stomach