Most of us at one time or another
have experienced the sacramental beauty of
loving another being. Love, however, defies
analysis and often does not fit our pictures.
From an outsider’s point of view, there are more
unlikely couples than likely ones, but those who
are not in the lover’s shoes may be unable to
fully understand their feelings. Camille (Lola
Créton), in Mia Hansen-Love’s third
feature Goodbye First Love, is repeatedly told
by parents and friends to forget the young man
who claims to love her for eternity, but then
leaves abruptly on a trip to “discover himself.”
That she is unable to let go is not a sign of
immaturity or madness, but only of the depth of
her love and the betrayal she feels.
The 17-year-old Créton (Something in the
Air) is stunning both in her appearance and her
ability as an actress. There is never a moment
when it feels that she is just playing a role
rather than being herself. Hansen-Love, herself
only thirty one, paints a striking picture of
the impact of first love. When Camille meets and
falls for the bland 19-year-old Sullivan
(Sebastian Urzendowsky) at the age of fifteen,
her first involvement is both joyous and
heartbreaking. To Camille, Sullivan is her world
and she is obsessed with him. Overly dramatic,
she threatens that if he leaves her, she will
“jump into Seine.” He responds by saying that
“If you cut your hair, I’ll kill you,”
presumably sparing her the trouble of jumping
into the Seine. Sullivan’s relationship with
Camille, though tender, lacks commitment.
For him, it feels as if love is a good idea but
not something he feels in his bones and the
chemistry between the two is missing in subtlety
and depth. On vacation in the idyllic
Ardèche region of Southern France,
Sullivan dumps on her, relating his plans to
drop out of school and backpack through South
America for ten months with friends. Obviously,
the “friends” part of it does not include
Camille. When he is on his trip, she follows his
journey via his letters and pushes pins into a
map to mark his whereabouts. Though he promises
to begin again where they left off, he soon
writes to her that he wants to be free. Camille
takes it hard, very hard and as time melts away,
she is no closer to acceptance than the day she
received the news.
Hansen-Love does not give us much information as
to the passage of time, but we know that years
have passed during which Camille has gone to
school to study architecture and has begun to
build a new life with Lorenz (Magne Håvard
Brekke), a considerably older professor of
Architecture. Growing in maturity, she has
become a young professional, having apparently
moved on from Sullivan, that is, until he comes
back into her life, seemingly unchanged both
physically and emotionally. Goodbye First Love
can be meandering without much happening in the
way of narrative and the jumpiness of the
editing can be frustrating.
Hansen-Love rarely stays with one scene
(especially the love-making scenes) long enough
for us to feel any deepening involvement, yet
the film succeeds in capturing the extreme mood
swings of adolescence with sensitivity and we
can relate to the emotional pain a breakup can
cause when people’s feelings are treated in a
cavalier fashion. What also works is the
eclectic soundtrack that features Patrick
Street, Violeta Parra, Matt McGinn, Johnny Flynn
and Laura Marling, music that adds another
dimension to the film. While it is not a
“message film,” what comes through for me in
Goodbye First Love is the Buddhist idea that the
origin of suffering is attachment to things that
are impermanent such as desire and passion.
Nirvana, however, is not always comprehensible
for those who are fifteen years old.
