For those who wish to decode The Names of Love, there's a sharp commentary on French prejudices, character types, history, and culture embedded in Michel Leclerc's droll autobiographical French comedy. But the surface story works just fine too: A free-spirited, left-wing, seductive young Frenchwoman, daughter of an Algerian immigrant, meets an uptight, square, middle-aged Frenchman whose Jewish mother survived the Holocaust.

Actors:

Zinedine Soualem,Carole Franck,Michelle Moretti,Jacques Gamblin,Jacques Boudet,Sara Forestier

Description:

Baya Benmahmoud (Sara Forestier), a young, extroverted liberal, lives by the old hippie slogan: "Make love, not war" to convert right-wing men to her left-wing political causes by sleeping with them. She seduces many and so far has received exceptional results - until she meets Arthur Martin (Jacques Gamblin), a Jewish middle aged, middle-of-the road scientist. Bound by common tragic family histories (the Algerian War and Holocaust under Vichy), the duo improbably fall in love. Amid the bubbly amour, humorous lasciviousness and moments of sheer madness, filmmaker Michel Leclerc injects satirical riffs on such hot-button sociopolitical issues as Arab-Jewish relations, anti-Semitism, immigration, and racial and cultural identity.