Female desire is placed front and centre of this appealingly idiosyncratic, erotic and authentic drama from Quebecois writer-director Monia Chokri (A Brother’s Love, Babysitter) which takes an unusually thoughtful and sophisticated approach to documenting an affair. The Nature Of Love digs fruitfully into the attraction and repulsion that can come with dating outside your own social strata.

Magalie Lépine-Blondeau is mesmerising in the role of Sophia, a beautiful 40-year-old philosophy professor living in Montreal, who is stuck in a staid marriage to fellow intellectual Xavier (Francis-William Rhéaume). The pair occupy separate bedrooms despite their conversational compatibility and are putting off having kids due to Sophia’s lack of career stability: at least that’s what she’s telling people.

Sophia is shaken out of her sexual slumber when she meets contractor Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal, best known for Xavier Dolan’s Tom At The Farm), who she hires to renovate her recently acquired country house (his withering assessment of her purchase reduces her to tears, but the pair bond after a visit to a bar). An earthy, hirsute type, known locally as a player, Sylvain possesses a strong magnetism and the two are irresistibly drawn together, at first on a purely physical, somewhat kinky level, though feelings quickly follow.

Dealing with a depth of emotion neither has experienced before, Sophia and Sylvain try to make a go of it in a relationship, but the differences in their upbringing, social scenes and opinions seem insurmountable. Sylvain can be prone to crass, casually racist remarks, while Sophia’s initially suppressed snobbery starts to rear its ugly head; she can’t help but sneer at his friends and family, illustrating her own ignorance, while Sylvain’s track record as a womaniser causes some concern. Their pals are perplexed by the relationship, though one (Françoise, played by Chokri herself) is inspired to start up her own affair.

The Nature Of Love is an appropriately seductive piece of cinema, one that’s intimate and convention-defying, funny, uncomfortable and disarmingly sexy. Brilliantly shot by André Turpin (Incendies, Mommy), its grainy texture, warm glow and dynamic, sometimes unpredictable camera movements evoke the rule-breaking cinema of the American New Wave. Yet that was a movement dominated by men and, with a woman calling the shots here, so much about this film feels fabulously female: from its primary perspective, frank approach to women’s wants and needs, and emotional sensitivity. 

Chokri made the film as a rejection of cinema’s tendency to idealise romantic encounters and strip them of a credible social context, observing that elements such as friends, family and status have an inevitable bearing on the success of a relationship. She balances an investigation of how love pans out in practice with philosophical musings on the subject, as Sophia explains the theories of Plato and bell hooks to her students; in one sense she’s an expert on love, in another more real way she hasn’t got a clue.

This film reflects the erratic, often inconvenient nature of life, with cringeworthy pratfalls puncturing sexual tension, while one moment Sophia is masturbating in the shower and the next she’s consoling her mother-in-law about her husband’s deteriorating health. Lead actress Lépine-Blondeau (who featured in Chokri’s debut A Brother’s Love, but may not be familiar to UK audiences) negotiates this tricky territory sublimely, showing flair for light comedy, while beautifully fleshing out Sophia’s risqué and agonising predicament, with her and the charismatic Cardinal sharing genuine chemistry.

Although The Nature Of Love adopts a non-judgemental approach to adultery, there’s plenty of judgement on display elsewhere. Despite its North American setting, the observations it makes about social barriers will resonate in class-obsessed Britain, and it’s an interesting film to view during such a polarised time politically. It’s fascinating to observe how Sophia can surrender to her sexual urges and throw her future up in the air but cannot deny who she is underneath it all.

As the title suggests, Chokri is attempting to crack one of the most difficult and significant subjects of them all. Using her intellectually curious and sexually courageous protagonist as a mouthpiece, she weighs up the physical, social and emotional factors at play, asking what love is and whether it can ever be enough.

The Nature Of Love is in cinemas from Friday 5 July.