Arnaud falls in love with a tough girl named Madeleine and attends boot camp with her.
Blaine: Thomas Cailley wanted his first full length feature to be more than just a romantic comedy. It had to have more to it that you usually wouldn’t see in those type of movies. Thomas wanted to add all kinds of elements to it, like adventure and action to make it more interesting.
Kevin Azais had been acting for two years and he felt the parts he had been playing were all the same. He needed something new, and “Love at First Fight” had a lot of great qualities to it, plus it’s lead character, Arnaud, had a lot to him. Adele Haenel came to Thomas Cailley’s mind very early on because she’s a very talented actress and the part of Madeleine seemed suitable for her. Adele is the type of woman who belongs in the same group as other strong females like Frances McDormand and Lily Tomlin, and Madeleine was written to be the type of woman you don’t want to mess with. Adele could see herself playing Madeleine and she felt she could relate to the character in certain ways. For one, Adele thinks of herself as different from everyone else.
The reason this film is called “Love at First Fight” is because Madeleine and Arnaud meet each other through a fight, although it doesn’t look like love at first sight. They are not looking at each other like lighting hit them, they have serious looks on their faces.
Arnaud is not too big on fighting girls, not because he’s afraid he’ll lose to them, he just doesn’t want to punch them. He’s a gentleman. But Madeleine can take it because she’s the type who is hardcore. She has a body as hard as a rock. Madeleine has Arnaud down on the ground, and Arnaud breaks free by biting Madeleine’s arm because again Arnaud has a rule not to punch women. No one is down on the ground so I would say it’s a tie.
Fate brings Arnaud and Madeleine together again. Arnaud is a handy man and both him and his brother are in charge of constructing something next to the pool. And wouldn’t you know….Madeleine lives there.
Arnaud has trouble taking his eyes off of Madeleine at times. He’s never seen a woman like Madeleine before. Madeleine trains herself to get into physical shape. She also sees things in a negative way. Being a soldier is all she cares about and she wants to be the best. Arnaud changes Madeleine’s point of view of things. He explains the positives about things to Madeleine and it opens her mind a bit. Arnaud invites Madeleine to have dinner with his family and hang out with his friends. Madeleine is doing stuff she doesn’t normally do and is starting to enjoy the subject known as fun.
Madeleine is going to boot camp and Arnaud decides to go too. His reason for doing it is to spend more time with Madeleine. Arnaud and Madeleine meet another guy who is attending boot camp and he looks like the type who will get in the way of Arnaud and Madeleine's relationship and get Arnaud jealous, but he’s not. He annoys Madeleine. Everyone is training with paintball guns, the guy hits Madeleine’s backpack, but she can’t see or feel it. He says Madeleine is out, but she denies it. Madeleine knocks him out by head butting him. Another thing about Madeleine is she believes she is never wrong about things.
Arnaud is doing fine at boot camp by playing by the rules. Madeleine however still has more to learn. Madeleine is physically trained, but she has to learn how to work with others. She doesn’t like anyone in boot camp. Madeleine got along with everyone Arnaud introduced her to back home, like Arnaud’s friends and his family, but the people at boot camp she is not fond of. Arnaud is the only one at boot camp who tries to reason with Madeleine because he’s her only friend. Things were fine for Arnaud and Madeleine, but as soon as they walked into boot camp, Madeleine treated everyone as if they didn’t matter, including Arnaud. Arnaud is nice to Madeleine and has been by her side since they entered boot camp, and she is treating him like she doesn’t need him at all. Arnaud tries to talk to Madeleine and she hits him. Arnaud has had enough. He realizes how stubborn Madeleine is. Arnaud is done with Madeleine and he is out of boot camp. Arnaud walks away and Madeleine goes after him because he’s the only one holding a compass. But I don’t think that’s the only reason she is following him. Madeleine doesn’t want Arnaud to leave. She enjoys his company.
Arnaud is in love with Madeleine and he finally expresses those feelings to her by stealing a kiss from her, but she pushes him away. Madeleine follows Arnaud into a restaurant and they have a talk. Arnaud knows Madeleine doesn’t like a lot of things in life. Madeleine doesn’t want to believe that. Arnaud does make Madeleine think about a lot of things. Madeleine hasn’t had much use for friends, but she likes having Arnaud as a friend and she doesn’t want to lose him.
Madeleine and Arnaud get to have their own adventure. They wander through the forest, catching fish with sharp sticks, enjoy nature, and just relax. Madeleine decides to kiss Arnaud, slowly, to see how it feels. It happened so fast for Madeleine when Arnaud kissed her and she didn’t know what to think of it. But I guess it grew on her the more she thought about it. No one has ever had those kind of feelings for Madeleine before and it was something completely new for her. Madeleine has spent so much time thinking about herself and getting into physical shape that she never thought about having a romantic life. Madeleine realizes that she loves Arnaud too.
Madeleine gets sick from a animal she ate, and that concerned me. I had hoped she was going to make it in the end, and be alright. Arnaud carries Madeleine, and tries to find help.
The way things look in that scene is almost like looking at a soldier carrying a wounded one through a war zone because both Madeleine and Arnaud are in uniform and they find their way to an area that has been abandoned, which is almost like going through a ruined area that was attacked by the enemy.
There’s nobody around and Madeleine looks like she is getting worse. A cloud of black smoke is coming because there is a fire near by. Both Madeleine and Arnaud pass out, but lucky thing for them help has come and they both manage to survive. That’s a relief. The last thing we need is another love story where one or both main characters die, like Romeo and Juliet. Madeleine and Arnaud have been taken to a hospital, Madeleine feels like a million bucks again and is up for another wild life adventure. Madeleine has changed some of her ways after experiencing a lot with Arnaud. She rather do things with someone rather than just doing them by herself and Arnaud is there for her. They have shared something special with each other after everything they have done together.
“Love at First Fight” became popular at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014. It was honored four awards at the festival, the FIPRESCI Prize, the Art Cinema Award, the SACD Prize (Directors Fortnight), and the Europa Cinemas Label Award. Kevin Azais gave a new performance in his career as an actor and it was so good that he won the most promising actor award at the Cesar Awards. The Ceaser Awards were also impressed with Adele Haenel’s performance as well and they gave her the Best Actress Award. I’m sure Thomas Cailley was very proud of what he accomplished after “Love at First Fight” was finished. He certainly did his job well by thinking up a different kind of love story. It won the Best First Feature at the Ceaser Awards.
My rating on “Love at First Fight” is five out of five stars
