''Love at Second Sight'' (french: Mon Inconnue, lit=My Stranger) is a 2019 French-Belgian

romantic comedy film Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

directed by

Hugo Gélin Hugo Gélin (born 4 May 1980) is a French film director, producer and screenwriter.Vincent JuléHugo Gélin, l’humour en héritage ''Le Parisien'', 30.10.2012 Life and career Hugo Gélin was born to Xavier Gélin on May 4, 1980. His grandparen ...

, starring

François Civil François Civil (; born 29 January 1990) is a French actor. He has appeared in both French and English-language feature films and is known for his roles in ''Frank'' (2014), ''As Above, So Below'' (2014), ''Call My Agent!'' (2015–17), ''Five'' ...

Joséphine Japy Joséphine Japy (born 12 July 1994) is a French actress. She made her debut in the 2005 film ', directed by Yves Angelo. In 2014, she played the lead role of Charlie in the film '' Respire'', which was presented in the International Critics' W ...

and

Benjamin Lavernhe Benjamin Lavernhe (, born 14 August 1984) is a French actor. He has appeared in more than sixteen films since 2009. Filmography References External links * Living people French male film actors 21st-century French male actors 1984 ...

. The film made its world premiere at the

L'Alpe d'Huez Film Festival L'Alpe d'Huez Film Festival, established in 1997, is a film festival dedicated to comedy cinema. It takes place every year in Alpe d'Huez L'Alpe d'Huez () is a ski resort in southeastern France at . It is a mountain pasture in the Central Fren ...

on 18 January 2019, where Civil received the Best Actor award. It was released theatrically in France by Mars Films on 3 April 2019. It won the Swann d'Or for Best Film at the 2019 Cabourg Film Festival.

was nominated for the

César Award for Best Supporting Actor List of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Supporting Actor (french: César du meilleur second rôle masculin). History Superlatives List of winners and nominees 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Multiple awards an ...

for his performance in the film.

Plot

Raphaël is a student who writes a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

novel during his school lessons, but doesn't dare showing it to anyone. One day he falls in love with Olivia, another student, who is a promising pianist. Raphaël rewrites his novel, incorporating a new character based on Olivia. With Olivia's help, Raphaël becomes a famous sci-fi writer. The two marry, but soon Raphaël gradually distances himself from Olivia, who abandons her career path and becomes a school

music teacher Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as primary education, elementary or secondary education, secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a res ...

. One evening, Raphaël, finalising his sequel novel, decides to kill off the female character he based on Olivia, and on the same night, he has a huge argument with her. After a snowstorm, the next morning, Raphaël finds himself in a parallel world in which Olivia has never met him and doesn't even know who he is. In this world, she is now a successful and famous pianist while he is a literature teacher who has never completed his novel. Having realised what has happened, Raphaël attempts to return to his former world. With the help of his best friend Félix, he learns more about his life in this world and manages to talk to Olivia. However, he discovers she is now in a relationship with her manager, Marc. Under the false pretext of writing her biography, Raphaël spends more time with Olivia and makes her fall for him again. Still, Olivia accepts Marc's proposal when he asks her to marry him, and tells Raphaël she wishes she met him years ago. In a last attempt to get his life back, Raphaël rewrites his sequel novel with a different end, and guesses that Olivia reading it may be the key to reverse the reality. He then gives it to Olivia and asks her to read it as a last favour. When she starts reading the novel, it begins to snow like the night they had the argument. As a result, Raphaël understands his theory is working. But, as he is reminiscing his whole love story with Olivia, he realises she is maybe better off without him. While Olivia is performing on stage, he takes back the novel before she can finish it, and chooses to stay in this world where Olivia appears happier. At the end, Olivia decides to leave Marc, and joins Raphaël to kiss him in a final scene.

Cast

as Raphaël *

as Olivia *

as Félix, Raphaël's best friend *

Camille Lellouche Camille Lellouche (; born 10 June 1986) is a French actress, comedian, and singer. In particular, she became known to the general public with her humorous and musical performances on YouTube and with her participation on the French version of '' ...

as Mélanie, Raphaël's one night stand *

Édith Scob Édith Scob (21 October 1937 – 26 June 2019) was a French film and theatre actress, best known for her role as the daughter with a disfigured face in '' Eyes Without a Face'' (1960). Early life and family Scob was born Édith Helena Vladimirov ...

as Gabrielle, Olivia's grandmother * Amaury de Crayencour as Marc, Olivia's possible future husband * Juliette Dol as Morgane, Félix's partner *

Samir Boitard Samir Boitard is a French actor. Personal life He has been in a relationship with French actor Louise Monot since 2014. In October 2016 they announced on social media that they were expecting their first child. Filmography See also *Cinem ...

as literature teacher * Christian Benedetti as Étienne Robert, editor *

Laurent Delahousse Laurent Delahousse (born 30 August 1969) is a French journalist and documentary filmmaker. He is best known for hosting the ''Journal de 20 heures'' news bulletin and ''Un jour, un destin'' biographical show, all on France 2. Education Delah ...

as himself * Franck Provost as himself

Filming

Filming took place in Paris between 16 January 2018 and 18 March 2018.

Reception

AlloCiné, a French cinema website, gave the film an average rating of 3.9/5, based on a survey of 25 French reviews. of the reviews compiled by

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

are positive, with an average rating of .

Box office

The film debuted at number 5 at the French box office, with 209,564 admissions. It sold a total of 559,126 tickets after 13 weeks in cinemas in France and grossed $5.9 million worldwide. ''Love at Second Sight'' was the first French film to be released in China since the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. It was the second most successful French film at the international box office (behind ''

The Wolf and the Lion "The Wolf and the Lion" is the fifth episode of the first season of the HBO medieval fantasy television series ''Game of Thrones'', first aired on May 15, 2011. It was written by series creators and executive producers David Benioff and D. B. ...

'') in April 2022. It garnered 261,000 admissions and

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

1.17 million at the Chinese box office until December 2022.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * {{Hugo Gélin 2019 films 2019 romantic comedy films French romantic comedy films Belgian romantic comedy films French-language Belgian films Alternate timeline films Films directed by Hugo Gélin 2010s French films Films set in Paris Films set in the 2000s Films set in the 2010s Films about pianos and pianists Films about writers Films shot in Paris