Directed by Valérie Donzelli and co-written with Audrey Diwan based on the novelby Éric Reinhardt, L'amour et les forêts is a drama tinged with thriller, starring Virginie Efira and Melvil Poupaud. Presented in 2023 at Cannes Première at the Cannes Film Festival and released in French theaters on May 24, 2023, the film will be broadcast on France 2 on Wednesday, November 26, 2025, at 9:10 p.m.
Blanche, a teacher, thinks she has found the man she has been waiting for when she meets Grégoire. Seduced by his confidence and attention, she quickly embarks on a passionate relationship. The couple marries, moves, and Blanche agrees to leave her family, especially her twin sister, to follow this man who promises her a new life. Little by little, signs of insidious control appear and the relationship changes. Blanche finds herself under the thumb of an increasingly possessive and intrusive partner.
What seemed to be a love built on momentum turns into a tense daily life, punctuated by anger, reproaches, and manipulation. Isolated from her loved ones and monitored in her every move, Blanche tries to understand what is happening to her and how to protect herself. The film follows her inner journey, between memories, silences, and attempts to speak out, as she faces a man whose dangerous behavior is exercised behind closed doors, in a seemingly ordinary setting.
L'amour et les forêts is an adaptation of the novel of the same nameby Éric Reinhardt, published by Gallimard, which Valérie Donzelli discovered while filming Marguerite et Julien. The filmmaker explains that she was struck by the way the book describes the mechanics of an abusive man who turns the situation around to present himself as a victim, which convinced her to bring this story to the screen. The film marks her return to feature films after shooting Notre Dame and the series Nona et ses filles, with the desire to tackle a darker subject matter.
The screenplay, co-written by Valérie Donzelli and Audrey Diwan, was conceived as a story that is both mental and very embodied. The director says she worked with particular precision on the script, before re-examining it during editing through extensive use of ellipsis to convey the psychological dimension of the hold. This fragmented structure brings the film closer to certain narratives focused on the intimate perception of the characters.
Virginie Efira was chosen for the role of Blanche very early on in the project. Valérie Donzelli wanted an actress capable of evoking strong empathy, which is key to accompanying the viewer through the character's experiences. The role of Grégoire Lamoureux then fell to Melvil Poupaud, whose performance anchors the character in an apparent normality that contrasts with the inner violence described in the film. The cast also includes Dominique Reymond, Virginie Ledoyen, Romane Bohringer, Laurence Côte, and Nathalie Richard.
The director is collaborating for the first time with director of photography Laurent Tangy, whose work on the image accompanies the gradual shift of the narrative towards a more disturbing atmosphere. The filming favors a mobile and reactive approach to the camera, with a search for live visual solutions to convey the characters' inner states. The original music is by Gabriel Yared, whose score contributes to the dramatic tension.
Presented at Cannes Première at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, the film went on to enjoy a remarkable run at the film awards. At the 2024 César Awards, it received the César for Best Adaptation for Valérie Donzelli and Audrey Diwan and received several nominations, notably for Virginie Efira (Best Actress), Melvil Poupaud (Best Actor) and Gabriel Yared (Best Original Score). Melvil Poupaud was also nominated for a Lumières de la presse étrangère award in 2024 for his performance. Sources: distributor, Cannes Film Festival, César Academy, Lumières de la presse étrangère, Gallimard publishing, France 2.
The film is a contemporary drama dealing withpsychological control and violence within a couple, with an intimate thriller dimension. The staging, editing, and voice-over narration highlight Blanche's point of view, her attempts to speak out and be heard, and the difficulty of naming what she is going through. The film is primarily aimed at adult audiences interested in stories centered on relationships of domination, the trajectories of women facing domestic violence, and gender approaches combining drama, suspense, and closed settings.
Our opinion on Love and Forests:
Adapted from the novelby Éric Reinhardt and co-written by Valérie Donzelli and Audrey Diwan, L'amour et les forêts tells the story of Blanche, played by Virginie Efira, who believes she has found love when she meets Grégoire, played by Melvil Poupaud. Their relationship quickly intensifies and they decide to move in together. Blanche distances herself from her family, especially her twin sister, to start a new life. However, she gradually finds herself under the control of a possessive and dangerous man.
Despite his appearance as the ideal son-in-law, something is not right with Grégoire. Although Blanche falls in love with him instantly, she soon realizes this. The term "narcissistic pervert" is never used, but that is clearly what is happening in L'Amour et les Forêts. He belittles her, harasses her, devalues her, makes her feel guilty, and above all, traps her. She has no escape, and the film shows the hell she goes through on a daily basis.
The film gradually turns into a thriller in which the most difficult thing for Blanche is to make herself heard. Throughout the film, she tells her story to an anonymous listener, a psychologist, a lawyer, a police officer—we don't know who—but the fact remains that this story had to be told, because her husband constantly speaks for her and stifles her to the point that she can no longer speak for herself.
Valérie Donzelli's new film is intensely and insidiously violent. Virginie Efira's character is under the control of Melvil Poupaud's character, who begins by distancing her before isolating her. The horror of this daily life is underscored by superb editing, which sets the pace of the film by emphasizing the repetitive nature of Melvil's angry outbursts. It is a brilliantly written and performed film.
L'amour et les forêts (Love and Forests)
Film | 2023
On television on France 2 on November 26, 2025, at 9:10 p.m.
Drama, Thriller | Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes
By Valérie Donzelli | Starring Virginie Efira, Melvil Poupaud, Dominique Reymond
Nationality: France
This broadcast on France 2 allows viewers to (re)discover a film that addresses control within a couple through the journey of a woman caught in an emotional and psychological spiral, somewhere between an intimate drama and a suspenseful thriller.
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