One of the biggest cinematic gatherings in the world, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is a respected and revered forum for massive entertainments and small arthouse favorites alike. After two years of stifled programming due to Covid-19, TIFF is back in a big way for 2022, featuring major films from Steven Spielberg, Martin McDonagh, Park Chan-wook, Lena Dunham, Sam Mendes, Rian Johnson, Darren Aronofsky, and many more, along with feature length debuts from up-and-coming filmmakers.
Some of the best and most anticipated films at TIFF this year are romantic by nature, whether as downright romance movies like Carmen or sexy hybrids of thriller and romance like Nightalk. Extremely varied in tone, theme, and vision, these romantic films represent a broad spectrum of international cinema, in which there truly is something for everybody. Here are all the romance movies screening at TIFF 2022.
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Romance Movies at TIFF 2022
- Carmen Decision to Leave Falcon Lake Nightalk One Fine Morning Stellar The Blue Caftan The Swearing Jar
Carmen
Sony Pictures Classics
Benjamin Millepied is making his first feature film after decades of being one of the best choreographers and music video directors in the business; the former member of the New York City Ballet, Millepied is bringing the longevity of his impressive dance career to this modern-day adaptation of the classic novella and opera Carmen.
Melissa Barrera and Paul Mescal have already been garnering immense acclaim for their performances as Carmen and Aidan respectively in a musical drama that is set to update the story with the topical twist of Carmen being a Mexican immigrant traveling across the deserts to Los Angeles, and engaging in one of the great romance stories of opera. The cinematography from Jörg Widmer looks to be utterly stunning in this big, beautiful, international film.
Decision to Leave
CJ Entertainment
TIFF would not be the same without spreading a bit of love, even if it’s channeled through the typically twisted, deliciously dark lens of master director Park Chan-wook. The Oldboy director has helmed the new South Korean romantic mystery Decision to Leave. Produced and directed by Park, the film begins with two police detectives at the firing range, gossiping together about their need for excitement in their lives, and how there’s a lack of murder cases to solve. Luckily for them, a new case comes in after a man climbing a peak outside Busan suddenly falls to his death. Or did he?
Perhaps he was pushed, but that’s for Detective Hae-joon and his partner to find out. When they realize that the dead man’s wife, Seo-rae, is weirdly unemotional, it begins to raise some suspicion. Soe-rae gets questioned by Hae-joon in a cat-and-mouse game, with the woman and the Detective beginning to enjoy the tension and form a seductive and sneaky relationship (despite their other relationships). What begins as simmering sensual interest quickly turns dark, and the audience will be left questioning who is good, and who is just playing a game.
Park won a well-deserved Best Director at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival for the movie, and following its release in South Korea in June, Decision to Leave was already selected as the South Korean entry for the Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards. Park has proven that he’s mastered erotic, sticky romance with his incredible recent film The Handmaid’s Tale, and he seems to be doing it again with a more mysterious and trilling film that brings back some features of his earlier work. There’s no doubt that this will be one of his most beloved films, and a TIFF favorite.
Falcon Lake
CinefranceLey Line Entertainment
The beautiful actor Charlotte Le Bon (Moon Indigo, The Walk, Fresh) is making her feature directorial debut with the French-Canadian film Falcon Lake, a loose adaptation of a French graphic novel by Bastien Vivès. The film is a charming coming-of-age romantic drama that follows 13-year-old Bastien vacationing in Quebec from the hustle and bustle of Paris; while there, he meets and lusts after 16-year-old Chloe, the daughter of his mother’s friend. The film made its worldwide premiere at the Directors’ Fortnight at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and was praised for its sensual imagery and almost borderline Gothic cinematic aesthetic.
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Nightalk
Evdon ProductionsFilmcoop
Donald Shebib is frequently cited as one of the most important figures in the history of Canadian movies, with his films Goin’ Down the Road, Between Friends, and Heartaches defining the country’s cinema throughout the ’70s and ’80s. Now, at 84 years old, the master is back with what seems like a steamy, dark thriller that looks at policing, sex work, and female experiences. In what seems like Shebib’s twist on classic Nordic Noir TV shows, Nightalk follows a cop (Ashley Bryant) named Brenda who goes undercover in a digital phone-sex hotline where a recent murder victim was employed. As Brenda investigates the murder, she begins a more personal relationship with a caller amidst the world of sex talk she’d immersed herself in.
One Fine Morning
Les films du losange
One Fine Morning is a French-German film, written and directed by the incredible Mia Hansen-Løve (Bergman Island, Things to Come). The story follows a man who suffers from a neurodegenerative disease and his daughter, Sandra, who lives alone with her own daughter. Sandra (the great Lea Seydoux) is struggling to maintain her life, as well as regular visits to her sick father and the troubles of finding a good nursing home. One day, she runs into a friend and (despite the friend being in a relationship), they find themselves falling into a passionate and secretive affair.
Katie Walsh of The Wrap called One Fine Morning “a profound and captivating portrait of love, lost, found, and ever-remaining,” and the film truly is beautiful and heartbreaking. This story of a confused and struggling daughter, her mother and her lover, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, won the Europa Cinemas Label Award for Best European Film, and is now coming to TIFF in the Special Presentations section. For those ready to shed some tears, get your tissues ready for One Fine Morning.
Stellar
The Anishinaabe filmmaker Darlene Naponse taps into her Indigenous roots to explore a deeply symbolic romance between She (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) and He (Braeden Clarke) in Northern Ontario. The allegorical characters in the film Stellar explore their relationship in the midst of an epic natural disaster that’s affecting the surrounding land in this mesmerizingly hypnotic movie that tackles spirituality in a modern world and the coming catastrophes of climate change with visual aplomb.
The Blue Caftan
Directed by Maryam Touzani, the Arabic-language film The Blue Caftan follows Mia and her secretly gay husband, Halim, as they hire an apprentice to help run a caftan store in Morocco. The audience watch Mia’s emotional battle against cancer, and her heartbreaking realization when she catches her husband staring at the young apprentice. The deep devotion and love Mia has for Halim doesn’t fade as she reaches her final days, though.
The Blue Caftan provides a beautifully tragic insight into a world where living with such secrecy is often normal, and the appreciation of how things are progressing. The Blue Caftan shows true, raw, and unconditional love at its most vulnerable state and has been described by Marya E. Gates of Playlist as “a rich, vibrant ode to love in all its many forms,” The film has been selected for TIFF, and will be released in the US in 2023.
The Swearing Jar
Gravitas VentureslevelFILM
Lindsay Mackay made a big splash on the festival circuit with the film Wet Bum, and she’s back now with The Swearing Jar. The film is written by Kate Hewlitt, who is adapting her own play about a recently married music teacher who decides to throw a concert for her new husband’s birthday. The result is a delightful balance of musical elements, tender romance, introspection, and emotional subtlety as the married couple reminisce during the party, looking back at their relationship and contemplating the future with their newly born baby. The Swearing Jar has a great cast, including Adelaide Clemens, Patrick J. Adams, Douglas Smith, Alison Pill, and Kathleen Turner, and is sure to be truly endearing.
