Film Review: A Love Affair of Sorts

Producer David Guy Levy sits in the director's chair in his experiment with metafilmmaking, love, and Flip cams

Following the never-ending trend of blurring fiction and reality via docudrama, producer David Guy Levy becomes a multi-hyphenate on his latest picture (both handling the director’s seat and co-lead) in the kind of romantic drama A Love Affair of Sorts, which begins its simultaneous Los Angeles and New York City theatrical runs this weekend. A virtual two-hander between Levy and co-star Lili Bordan, the film alternates between two similarly, solipsistic tales. The foreground plot involves the pair shooting a low budget indie concerning a week in the lives of David and Enci, a successful painter and Hungarian nanny respectively, who find themselves alone in Los Angeles during the Christmas holiday.

Sweet but introverted, the pair agrees to embark on a video art project, recording their lives in order to communicate some higher purpose or message. Shot entirely on two Flip cameras, David and Enci indulge their wannabe, auteurist tendencies by clumsily filming every possible angle and alternating between unbearably shaky, POV shots to rather well-framed and lit static setups. Director Azazel Jacobs adeptly edits the footage together between both cameras, conveying both the amateur fumblings of two regular people trying to be artistic as well as elevating snippets of genuine self-confession and reaction into revelation. Together, both David and Enci record their relatively mundane existences, complicated by an awkward three-way date with her boyfriend Boris (Ivan Kamaras) and David’s caring but bluntly honest friend Jonathan (Jonathan Beckerman, who was unaware that he was involved in a fiction film until shooting wrapped).

Like any decent romantic comedy, love blooms unexpectedly but alas anyone who has watched a movie knows that this will not end happily. Frankly, this storyline plays out as conventionally as it sounds, the improvised dialogue and loose staging provides a faux-realistic veneer one can lazily embrace. However, the background plot is where the juices really begin flowing; as David and Lili break character to discuss shooting as well as their own thoughts about character, a secondary infatuation develops within David for his co-star. Communicated most effectively (if uninspiring) via direct address to the camera, Lili confesses the growing strain in their relationship as David attempts to blur the line between artistic collaborator and genuine, love interest. Bordan’s confusion and reticence are effortlessly captured by her little Flip unit, while the director stays enigmatically silent.

These moments of self-confession, as well as momentary breaks in shooting illustrating rehearsals and setups, systematically pierce the veil the duo wishes to erect with their project. In terms of form, A Love Affair of Sorts has a direct connection to William Greaves’ Symbiopsychotaxiplasm projects which took meta-filmmaking to heightened levels before its time even came. While Levy earns points for his experimental style and interplay with Bordan, the film’s pacing leaves a bit to be desired until the near end, when the foreground story is dropped and the “real life” drama begins. One must also make the choice of committing to two fairly uninteresting people video how boring they are for ninety minutes. The novelty of shooting only on Flip cams is a nice marketing novelty but also speaks to society’s increased fascination to utilize technology to create connection amongst people. However, A Love Affair of Sorts also showcases the downside of technology’s growing encroachment on human relationships and for that, does deserve a fair modicum of credit.

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