Michel Leclerc’s Le Nom de Gens (The Names of Love) raises the bar on ditzy left-wing activism with a turbo-charged version of “girls say yes to boys who say no.” Baya Benmahmoud (Sara Forestier) is out to convert political conservatives and open minds one man at a time. She has her way with anyone whose opinions she opposes, in the belief that her ideological commentary offered just before climax will penetrate their consciousness and convert them to her free-spirited world view.
Watching the lovely Baya romp around mostly unclad is quite good fun and one might easily imagine that many men could be enticed to see things through her beautiful blue eyes. When the French-Algerian Baya encounters Arthur Martin (Jacques Gamblin), a somewhat repressed, 40ish Jewish scientist, their initial collision leads to a comic romantic adventure that reveals a more serious narrative thread to this film.
Much like Baya’s approach to sex/men/politics, the inviting outer wrapping of this story makes it easy to get into, yet it’s clear that the film’s writers, Michel Leclerc and Baya Kasmi, wanted to take on weightier issues. Attitudes towards religion, nationality, immigration, freedom vs. repression, and even the Holocaust come up for discussion, for the most part in a comic context. The dinner scene in which Baya first meets Arthur’s Holocaust survivor parents, trying valiantly to avoid saying anything that might refer to the taboo topic, is simply hilarious.
Much of the political focus is on Arab-Jewish relations, making the film particularly interesting to view in Israel. Yet at the same time, watching the film I felt disturbed by the extent to which the film itself panders to stereotypes. Baya’s clothes seem to always slip off, she’s barely dressed even when those around her are wearing sweaters, and the forgetful young thing even gets on the Metro utterly nude. When viewed in relation to issues from her past revealed in the film, Baya’s way of life and her romance with a man who seems to be about her father’s age, are perhaps more disturbing than amusing.
Le Nom de Gens (The Names of Love), French with subtitles in English and Hebrew
Directed by Michel Leclerc, Written by Michel Leclerc and Baya Kasmi
Orlando Films brings this romantic comedy to the recently launched ZOA House cinema in Tel Aviv, and other movie theatres throughout the country.
