Stella in Love

A head full of boys and dreams, a life full of obstacles. ›Stella in Love‹ conjures 1980s France in a melancholic coming-of-age story with an atmospheric mixtape soundtrack.

The Italian vacation, complete with summer romance, is over. For Stella, this means a return to: Paris, cold weather, her dreary school, and studying for her graduation. It also means returning to her working-class milieu, her depressive mother (Marina Foïs), and the mother’s sleazy boyfriend. Her father is happy with his new family. The most fashionable club in town, Les Bains Douches, offers an escape from the gloom. There she meets André, who dances like a young god.

In her latest work, Sylvie Verheyde revisits the autobiographical protagonist of  ›Stella‹, her celebrated previous film, and brings her to the cusp of adulthood. And right in the middle of the deeply divided France of the 1980s. Verheyde conjures this era and this chapter of life as a wild, nocturnal fever dream that is always on the brink of a breaking point.

Director