Un amour de jeunesse (Goodby first love in the english version) is a 2011 Franco-German film directed by Mia Hansen-Løve. The film is chronicle of the romance between Camille and Sullivan, which begins during their adolescence and picks up after Sullivan’s 8-year absence from exploring the world. What is refreshing about Hansen-Løve’s movie is that it doesn’t fob its characters or its audiences off with the usual gentle hindsight-condescension about young love or first love. It is a commonplace to think about climbing into a time machine and travel back to visit our teenage lovelorn selves, sobbing our hearts out in our bedrooms. If only we could hug our former selves and tell them it’s all right, and it doesn’t matter. Hansen-Løve is telling us something quite different: of course it matters. Heartbroken young love is the most intense kind, perhaps the only authentic kind. And you will never forget it and never entirely get over it. It was selected for the main competition section at the 2011 Locarno International Film Festival.
