First love is a staple of films, books and music. Mia Hansen-Løve in no way reinvents this subject, but she infuses it with an emotional force that turns Un Amour de Jeunesse into a deeply satisfying experience. At the start of the film, Camille (Lola Créton, of Catherine Breillat’s Barbe Bleue) is a wide-eyed fifteen-year-old who throws herself with abandon into the heady adventure of an all-consuming relationship. By the end, she is older, wiser and wistful about what has been experienced – and lost – through her passionate affair.
Camille’s boyfriend Sullivan (Sebastian Urzendowsky) is a few years older. Not wanting to tie himself down while still a teenager, he is determined to travel and experience new things. Despite her entreaties, Sullivan chooses to leave, sparking a long fit of depression in Camille. The core of the film focuses on her growth as a young woman, overwhelmed by the powerful emotions ignited by love, but left without a focal point after Sullivan’s departure.
Hansen-Løve proves herself a master of delicate emotional terrain seen from a woman’s point of view. City and country, classroom and office, bedroom and open field provide the landscape for this rich portrait of something each one of us has experienced in our own unique way. - Piers Handling, Toronto International Film Festival