The autobiographical third feature from French director Mia Hansen-Løve limns the ecstasy and tumult of youthful, sometimes self-destructive passion. The story, told in three movements covering 12 years, charts the bruising consequences of infatuation as Camille (Lola Créton) oscillates between her handsome contemporary (Sebastian Urzendowsky) who she cannot break free of and the Norwegian architect (Magne-Håvard Brekke) who becomes her mentor. Hansen-Løve deftly evokes the consciousness of female desire as something blinding and all-encompassing. Cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine's limpid photography and the director's elliptical passage of time sharply counterpoint Camille's fractured state. As a young woman navigating the intricacies of adulthood, Créton conveys an emphatic mixture of audacity, naïveté, and sexual abandon. The one-time protégé (and now wife) of French master Olivier Assayas (Carlos), Hansen-Løve coolly justifies the hype.
