Love at First Fight

A triple winner at last year’s Cannes, where it played in the Directors’ Fortnight, Love at First Fight offers a warm and refreshing coming-of-age story. Easygoing and naïve Arnaud (Kévin Azaïs) plans to spend the summer helping his brother in the family carpentry business. But when he meets Madeleine (Adèle Haenel), a steely young woman determined on the harshest military service and preoccupied with visions of the apocalypse, he adoringly follows her to boot camp. Thomas Cailley’s first feature may feel unmistakably familiar, yet it offers two alluring and empathetic protagonists (portrayed by equally likable actors), well-wrought humor, and gorgeous cinematography by David Cailley (the director’s brother). Winner of three César Awards, for Most Promising Actor, Best Actress, and Best First Film. A Strand Releasing release.

Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2015
Cannes Film Festival 2014

“Cailley makes the most of these two wonderful young actors' faces: Together, they capture the head-rush of young love in all its prickly, misguided glory.” —Stephanie Zacharek, The Village Voice

“A superbly witty screenplay balancing crowd-pleasing comedy and some contemplation about youthful ennui in France, and the two leads deliver turns that do justice to the text.” —Clarence Tsui, The Hollywood Reporter

“An expertly handled and brilliantly performed feel-good comedy with an original twist.” —John Bleasdale, Cine-Vue