''The Salt of Tears'' (french: Le Sel des larmes) is a 2020

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Philippe Garrel Philippe Garrel (; born 6 April 1948) is a French director, cinematographer, screenwriter, film editor, and producer, associated with the French New Wave movement. His films have won him awards at Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival. ...

. It stars Logann Antuofermo,

Oulaya Amamra Oulaya Amamra (born 12 November 1996) is a French actress known for starring in the 2016 films ''Divines'' and '' Tamara''. She won the César Award for Most Promising Actress and the Lumières Award for Most Promising Actress for ''Divines''. A ...

, Louise Chevillotte,

Souheila Yacoub Souheila Yacoub (born 29 June 1992) is a Swiss actress, theatre maker, former rhythmic gymnast, and Miss Suisse Romande 2012 winner. Life and career Yacoub was born in Geneva to a Tunisian father and a Flemish mother. She has a sister. Yacoub a ...

, and

André Wilms André Wilms (29 April 1947 – 9 February 2022) was a French film and television actor who also appeared in German and Finnish films. Wilms was the winner of the Best Supporting European Actor award at the 1992 European Film Awards for his wor ...

. It tells the story of a young man who falls in love with three women. The film had its world premiere in the Competition section at the

70th Berlin International Film Festival The 70th annual Berlin International Film Festival took place from 20 February to 1 March 2020. It was the first under the leadership of new Berlin Film Festival heads, business administration director Mariette Rissenbeek and artistic director C ...

on 22 February 2020.

Premise

An aspiring carpenter Luc travels to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

to take the examination for a joinery school. He has a brief relationship with Djemila. Subsequently, he goes back to his rural hometown, where he lives with his father. Luc sleeps with his former girlfriend Geneviève. He moves to Paris and falls in love with another woman named Betsy.

Cast

Production

The film was co-written by

with his longtime collaborators

Arlette Langmann Arlette Langmann (born 3 April 1946) is a French screenwriter, film editor and production designer. Born in Paris to Jewish immigrant parents from Romania and Poland, Langmann is best known for her long-running collaborations with her brother ...

and

Jean-Claude Carrière Jean-Claude Carrière (; 17 September 1931 – 8 February 2021) was a French novelist, screenwriter and actor. He received an Academy Award for best short film for co-writing '' Heureux Anniversaire'' (1963), and was later conferred an Honorary ...

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

began on 2 April 2019.

Release

The film had its world premiere in the Competition section at the

on 22 February 2020. It was originally scheduled to be released in France on 8 April 2020, but it was then delayed to 14 October 2020 due to 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 ...

. The film was then removed from the release calendar.

Reception

On review aggregator website

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 ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 64% based on 22 reviews, with an average of . On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 62 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Eric Kohn of ''

IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...

'' gave the film a grade of B, commenting that "there's an undeniable allure to the way the movie hovers in an ambiguous space between Luc's passions and their problematic connotations." Peter Bradshaw of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, writing, "It is a watchable, insouciant love story with some great incidental performances, although there is a sense of the shark being jumped 30 minutes from the end." Boyd van Hoeij of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' wrote, "Though set in the present, the grainy black-and-white images and ean-LouisAubert's familiar-sounding, piano-led score again lend the story something timeless." Meanwhile, Diego Semerene of ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

'' gave the film 1.5 out of 4 stars, writing, " hilippeGarrel illustrates the absurdity behind the myth of the complementary couple with the same cynicism that permeates his previous work but none of the humor or wit." Guy Lodge of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote, "A minor romantic roundelay that deviates little from the essential template of his last three films, it's very much the work of an artist less preoccupied with innovation than with signature craftsmanship."

References

External links

* * https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-salt-of-tears/critic-reviews {{DEFAULTSORT:Salt of Tears, The 2020 films French drama films 2020s French-language films Films directed by Philippe Garrel Films postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Swiss drama films French-language Swiss films 2020s French films