''Games of Love and Chance'' (french: L'Esquive) is a 2003 French

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 ...

directed by

Abdellatif Kechiche Abdellatif Kechiche (; ar, عبد اللطيف كشيش, born 7 December 1960) is a Tunisian-French actor, film director and screenwriter. He made his directorial debut in 2000 with ''La Faute à Voltaire'', which he also wrote. Known for his na ...

and starring

Sara Forestier Sara Forestier (born 4 October 1986) is a French actress, film director and screenwriter. Life and career Forestier began her film career in 2001. She received a César Award for Most Promising Actress for her performance in ''Games of Love and ...

. It won the

César Award for Best Film The winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Film (French: ''César du meilleur film''). Winners and nominees 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s See also * Lumières Award for Best Film * Louis Delluc Prize for Best Film ...

, Best Director, Best Writing and Most Promising Actress. The film was shot in

Seine-Saint-Denis () is a department of France located in the Grand Paris metropolis in the region. In French, it is often referred to colloquially as ' or ' ("ninety-three" or "nine three"), after its official administrative number, 93. Its prefecture is Bob ...

in 6 weeks in October and November 2002.

Synopsis

A group of teenagers from the housing projects of the Paris suburbs practice a passage from the play '' The Game of Love and Chance'' by

Marivaux Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (4 February 1688 – 12 February 1763), commonly referred to as Marivaux, was a French playwright and novelist. He is considered one of the most important French playwrights of the 18th century, writing nume ...

for their French class. Abdelkrim, or Krimo, who initially does not act in the play, falls in love with Lydia. In order to try to seduce her, he accepts the role of Arlequin and joins the rehearsal. But his timidness and awkwardness keeps him from participating in the play as well as succeeding with Lydia.

Cast

Other than

, many of the actors in this film were inexperienced in cinema and recruited specifically for the film. *

Osman Elkharraz Osman is the Persian transliteration and derived from the Arabic masculine given name Uthman ( ar, عُثْمان, , link=no ''‘uthmān'') or an English surname. It may refer to: People * Osman (name), people with the name * Osman I (1258–1 ...

as Krimo *

as Lydia *

Sabrina Ouazani Sabrina Ouazani (born 6 December 1988) is a French actress of Algerian descent. She is best known internationally for her performance as Frida in '' Games of Love and Chance'' and as Charlotte Ben Smires in Netflix's hit rom-com series '' The H ...

as Frida * Nanou Benhamou as Nanou * Hafet Ben-Ahmed as Fathi, Krimo's best friend * Aurélie Ganito as Magalie, the girlfriend of Krimo (broke up near the beginning of the film) *

Carole Franck Carole Franck (born 1970 in Paris) is a French actress. Filmography Dubbing Theatre References External links * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Franck, Carole Living people French film actresses French television actresses Actresses from Par ...

as The French Professor * Hajar Hamlili as Zina * Rachid Hami as Rachid / Arlequin * Meryem Serbah as the mother of Krimo * Hanane Mazouz as Hanane * Sylvain Phan as Slam * Olivier Loustau, Rosalie Symon, Patrick Kodjo Topou, Lucien Tipaldi as the police * Reinaldo Wong as The couturier * Nu Du, Ki Hong, Brigitte Bellony-Riskwait, Ariyapitipum Naruemol, Fatima Lahbi

Reception

''Games of Love and Chance'' garnered a 79% approval rating on

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 Wan ...

and a 71/100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that 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 average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

References

External links

* * * * 2003 films 2003 drama films 2000s French-language films Best Film César Award winners Films whose director won the Best Director César Award Films directed by Abdel Kechiche French drama films 2000s French films {{2000s-France-film-stub