Young love has been a mainstay of film and television drama for many years, but rarely, if ever, has it made the transition to documentary. The delicate, challenging and complex emotions that define young love are at the gentle heart of this film from Olivia Rochette and Gerard-Jan Claes, a hybrid film that is honest and subtly moving without ever being exploitative or traumatic.
Premiering in the Generations section of the Berlin Film Festival, Kind Hearts follows the relationship between young Brussels couple Billie and Lucas, who have been boyfriend and girlfriend since fourth grade, but now have to deal with the challenge of both leaving for university and facing a year ahead with change in the air.
It is an intriguing hybrid of a film. Billie and Lucas were chosen after the directors attended some classes at a secondary school, and while the film charts their relationship they are also ‘actors’ of sorts, performing the roles of ‘Billie’ and ‘Lucas’ and often being asked to re-enact moments from their time together. And while not a pure fly-on-the-wall documentary, Kind Hearts still offers an unsentimental look into the evolution of a young love.
The film opens at a funfair park as the young pair – Billie Meeussen and Lucas Roefmans – enjoy a thrilling ride (perhaps a subtle hint that life is a rollercoaster of emotions) before sitting together and talking about what might happen to them as university looms. “Do you think a lot will change,” asks Billie, “we will meet new people,” she adds, nervous about their friendship group expanding. “I think it will be a positive change,” counters Lucas.
She tentatively suggests they should live together (more to elicit a response than to suggest a reality) but Lucas is happy with the situation as it stands. Billie is clearly more driven in terms of college work, while musician Lucas is happiest creating sounds on his laptop and performing with friend Charlotte.
Shrewdly, the film never hits at sexuality or even intimacy – the only scene is when the young pair and their friends watch an outdoor film showing a couple their age stripping to their underwear and swimming in a lake – and while there are declarations of love from both Billie and Lucas as the film reaches its half way point they are even then talking about splitting. In a nicely enacted scene the pair struggle to find the right words to explain their emotions and what they want going forward, but from this point on the film is less about love, rather all about loss and moving forwards.
The film’s final third essentially sees them dealing with their split – also set against the backdrop of Covid lockdowns which adds a level of poignancy – before another reunion at the same park café featured at the opening of the film. Both seem more mature – especially Billie, who now seems more sure that separating was the right thing to do. Lucas admits he was surprised she got over their split so speedily, while she says (with a gentle smile) “you are a romantic.”
In a bit of a filmmaking cliché, the final shot is of dark clouds filling the frame, but that should take nothing about from filmmakers Olivia Rochette and Gerard-Jan Claes who should be applauded for their sensitive handling of the story of a young couple’s love story. Their visions of the future, niggling doubts about worries about relationships and the expectations of adult life make for an enthralling story that never feels intrusive or voyeuristic, and in less compassionate and measured hands it could have gone badly wrong.
Belgium, 2022, 87mins
Dirs Olivia Rochette. Gerard-Jan Claes
Production Accattone Films, Canvas
Producers Rasmus Van Heddeghem Ruben Desiere
Cinematography Olivia Rochette
Editor Dieter Diependaele
With Billie Meeussen, Lucas Roefmans, Romane Van Damme, Charlotte Meyntjens, Rana Hamzaoui, Gaspard Renier, Victoria De Man
