Goodbye First Love

Overview

Usually when we see a teen romance at the heart of a film we're watching a film made for teens. Goodbye First Love is no such film. Mia Hansen-Love's semi-autobiographical ode is an unapologetically sentimental love story stripped to its emotional core. Following the acclaim of All Is Forgiven (2007) and Father of My Children (2009), this film weaves neatly into her emerging lineage of intimate, slow-burn portraits of fractured relationships. Goodbye First Love does not end with young lovers kissing under the speckled light of a disco ball at a high school prom.

In the Paris of 1999 we meet a mousy, sulky and studious 15-year-old, Camille (Lola Creton), and her raffish, free-spirited 19-year-old lover Sullivan (Sebastian Urzendowsky). As a summer of breezy afternoon sex in the countryside comes to a close, passions are tempered by Sullivan's decision to head away on a 10-month backpacking trip around South America. It isn't long before his letters dry up and Camille, who is constitutionally gloomy, descends into the darker reaches of melancholy.

Over the course of a decade, the film charts Camille's movements through geography, romance and self-discovery governed by the dictates of a broken heart. The very simple narrative arc follows the familiar tropes of the calendar seasons (summer skin is shed and winter inspires introspection, etc) and yet, to the director's credit, the action never feels concocted.

Hansen-Love's power as a filmmaker is her knack for crafting intimately realised worlds. The experience of peering into these worlds is at once familiar to us and yet so specific that it feels unique to the lives of her characters. A director with this talent is one to watch.

Read our review with director Mia Hansen-Love here.