Passion Simple - Blu-ray

Movie: It is a night of passion that literature professor Hélène (Laetita Dosch) experiences in Porto with married Alexandre (Sergei Polunin). Back in Party, single parent Hélène was supposed to come back down to earth. But after Alexandre, who works at the Russian embassy, happens to keep running into her, the two begin a passionate affair. Although he is not really available and they have no future together, Hélène just can't stop thinking about Alexandre. Their affair becomes a real obsession for her that just can't end well...

"Passion Simple" shows very vividly how quickly unrestrained passion can turn into a destructive obsession. Laetitia Dosch delivers a very strong performance as a single mother professor whose life threatens to go completely off the rails. She seems to be a strong woman in herself, but when it comes to Alexandre, she suddenly abandons all reason. As a result, not only her job suffers, but also her son. Although there can be no future for her and Alexandre, he behaves towards her very closed, jealous and even downright aggressive, she risks everything for him, which keeps her life in itself in balance.

French-Lebanese filmmaker Danielle Arbid draws a sensitive and very realistic picture of this relationship, which is dominated by tender passion, especially at the beginning. The numerous sex scenes never seem voyeuristic, but very authentic. Often, in erotic films, even the undressing seems very posed and unreal. This is not the case here. This authenticity makes it easy to understand why Hélène can let herself fall in these moments of passion, even if she is not really treated well by Alexandre and why she is not ready to give it all up again - without realizing what the consequences could be.

"Passion Simple" is an almost matter-of-fact, but thereby also very engaging look at the darker side of a sexual and emotional addiction. Great acting and staged with a sensitive hand remains there at the end a very clear conclusion: worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The image seems in places a little coarse-grained, but this can certainly be evaluated as a stylistic means. Otherwise, warm colors and a decent overall sharpness determine the visual implementation of the film. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is rather restrained and is primarily dominated by the rather directional mixed dialogue. For a rather quiet drama like this, that's perfectly adequate!

Extras: Except for the trailer, there are unfortunately no extras.

Conclusion: "Passion Simple" is an erotic drama that traces the fine line between pure passion and destructive obsession very impressively. Laetitia Dosch's performance in particular leaves a lasting impression. The Blu-ray presents the film in atmospheric picture and sound quality, extras are unfortunately in vain. For fans of sophisticated arthouse romances clearly: recommended!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp