“The Nature of Love,” Monia Chokri’s sexy romantic comedy that beat Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” in the best foreign-language film race at this year’s Cesar Awards, has been acquired by Music Box Films for the U.S.
“The Nature of Love” world premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard to strong reviews, followed by a North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Chokri’s film stars Magalie Lépine Blondeau and Pierre-Yves Cardinal. Music Box Films will open “The Nature of Love” in theaters this summer with a home entertainment release to follow.
“The Nature of Love” follows 40-year-old philosophy professor Sophia, who abandons her stable and conventional marriage for a passionate affair with Sylvian, a craftsman renovating her country house. Their romantic impulses are complicated by intellectual and social differences.
“Monia Chokri takes a familiar romantic comedy outline and infuses it with spiky energy and fresh perspective, upending genre (and gender) conventions with aplomb,” Music Box Films’ Brian Andreotti said in a statement.
“‘The Nature of Love’ is a finely-crafted movie that earns comparison with prickly ’70s landmarks like ‘The Heartbreak Kid,’ and is great counter-programming for art house audiences left dumbstruck by algorithm-approved rom coms,” Andreotti added.
The movie was produced by Montreal-based company Metafilms, which stated that the film delivers a “compelling and ambitious exploration of both humor and love.”
Variety‘s review described it as a “sexy, funny treat [that] communicates some home truths about desire and familiarity, but not at the expense of comedy.”
The sale of the film was negotiated by Andreotti of Music Box Films and Quentin Bohanna at MK2 on behalf of the filmmakers.
