# The Nature of Love

The Nature of Love (French: Simple comme Sylvain) is a 2023 Canadian romantic comedy-drama film directed by Monia Chokri.
The film had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2023.

## Plot

University professor Sophia has a comfortable life and a stable but unexciting marriage to Xavier. That is upended when she meets and is attracted to Sylvain, a blue-collar construction contractor whom the couple hires to renovate their summer home.

## Cast

* Magalie Lépine-Blondeau as Sophie
* Pierre-Yves Cardinal as Sylvain
* Monia Chokri as Françoise
* Francis-William Rhéaume as Xavier
* Steve Laplante as Philippe
* Marie-Ginette Guay as Sylvie
* Micheline Lanctôt as Madeleine
* Guillaume Laurin as Olivier
* Linda Sorgini as Guylaine
* Mathieu Baron as Kevin
* Christine Beaulieu as Karine
* Lubna Playoust as Joséphine
* Guy Thauvette as Pierre
* Karelle Tremblay as Camélia

## Production

Production on the film was first announced in fall 2022.

## Release

The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2023.

## Critical response

Catherine Bray of Variety praised the film, writing that "The film is impeccably cast. As Sophia, Magalie Lépine Blondeau (whom Chokri first directed ten years ago in her hugely successful short An Extraordinary Person) is wonderful, gifted with great comic timing and a particular knack for telegraphing that sense of someone who knows they’re making a huge mistake, but are compelled to go ahead and make it anyway. That’s handy, since it is perhaps the character’s defining trait. But it’s hard to imagine Blondeau’s role working as well as it does without the right actor as Sylvain, the kind of guy whose compulsive sexual charm is enough, by itself, to swamp every other more cautious instinct. Luckily, Cardinal has form here, having previously sizzled in Xavier Dolan’s Tom at the Farm, as the burly agricultural man’s man to Dolan’s fashionable city boy. Call it screen presence, magnetism, charisma — Cardinal has it."
Savina Petkova of Cineuropa wrote that "Even if The Nature of Love can’t shake off the pessimistic thought that all instances of a heterosexual, monogamous love life are doomed to repeat the same cycle of infatuation/marriage/depletion of desire, it offers a special, nuanced take on love and what love can be. It even suggests a canon of studies on romance – a topic equally neglected in philosophy and ethics – with quotes by the likes of Plato, bell hooks and Vladimir Jankélévitch, but without being didactic in any way. Overall, Chokri’s new film is as confident as its protagonist, a woman who knows how to articulate her desires, to surrender and to leave them behind, when it feels right.”
Maxance Vincent of InSession Film wrote that the movie is "one of the funniest and most heartbreaking movies you’ll see all year, and it cements Chokri as one to watch as a daring auteur who never made the same film twice and will seemingly continue pushing the boundaries of what modern Québec cinema can – and should – be."

## Accolades

| Award / Film Festival | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) | Result |
| Cannes Film Festival | May 26, 2023 | Un Certain Regard | Monia Chokri | Nominated |
| Cannes Film Festival | May 26, 2023 | Queer Palm | Monia Chokri | Nominated |
| Whistler Film Festival | December 3, 2023 | Best Cinematography in a Borsos Competition Film | André Turpin | Won |
| Prix collégial du cinéma québécois | April 5, 2024 | Best Film | Monia Chokri | Nominated |
| César Awards | 23 February 2024 | Best Foreign Film | The Nature of Love | Won |
| Canadian Screen Awards | May 2024 | Best Lead Performance in a Comedy Film | Magalie Lépine-Blondeau | Nominated |
| Canadian Screen Awards | May 2024 | Best Original Screenplay | Monia Chokri | Nominated |
| Canadian Screen Awards | May 2024 | Best Cinematography | André Turpin | Nominated |
| Canadian Screen Awards | May 2024 | Best Editing | Pauline Gaillard | Nominated |
| Prix Iris | December 8, 2024 | Best Film | Sylvain Corbeil, Nancy Grant, Elisha Karmitz, Nathanaël Karmitz | Nominated |
| Prix Iris | December 8, 2024 | Best Director | Monia Chokri | Won |
| Prix Iris | December 8, 2024 | Best Actor | Pierre-Yves Cardinal | Nominated |
| Prix Iris | December 8, 2024 | Best Actress | Magalie Lépine-Blondeau | Nominated |
| Prix Iris | December 8, 2024 | Best Supporting Actor | Steve Laplante | Nominated |
| Prix Iris | December 8, 2024 | Best Supporting Actor | Francis-William Rhéaume | Nominated |
| Prix Iris | December 8, 2024 | Best Screenplay | Monia Chokri | Nominated |
| Prix Iris | December 8, 2024 | Best Art Direction | Colombe Raby | Nominated |
| Prix Iris | December 8, 2024 | Best Cinematography | André Turpin | Won |
| Prix Iris | December 8, 2024 | Best Editing | Pauline Gaillard | Nominated |
| Prix Iris | December 8, 2024 | Best Sound | François Grenon, Julien Roig, Olivier Guillaume | Nominated |
| Prix Iris | December 8, 2024 | Best Casting | Annie St-Pierre | Nominated |
| Prix Iris | December 8, 2024 | Most Successful Film Outside Quebec | Monia Chokri, Sylvain Corbeil, Nancy Grant, Elisha Karmitz, Nathanaël Karmitz | Won |
| Prix Iris | December 8, 2024 | Prix Michel-Côté | Patrick Roy, Monia Chokri, Sylvain Corbeil, Nancy Grant, Elisha Karmitz, Nathanaël Karmitz | Nominated |