Rodrigue in Love

The Avignon Festival in July is essentially the Hunger Games for people with stage makeup and projection issues. It is a sweltering, beautiful, and utterly chaotic pressure cooker where thousands of actors compete for the attention of a public that is mostly just looking for some shade and a cold beer. In Rodrigue in Love (2025), director Johann Dionnet uses this backdrop to launch a comedy of errors that feels both comfortably classic and sharp enough for our current moment.

I watched this while trying to assemble a flat-pack IKEA desk, and Stéphane’s spiraling, structural lies felt significantly more organized than my lopsided drawers. There is something deeply cathartic about watching a professional actor make a complete mess of his own life when he’s supposed to be "finding his truth" on stage.

The High-Stakes Theatre of Lies

The film follows Stéphane, played with a frantic, wide-eyed charm by Baptiste Lecaplain (who you might recognize from Libre et assoupi). Stéphane is part of a struggling troupe performing a boulevard play—the kind of door-slamming farce that French theatre survives on. When he crosses paths with Fanny (Élisa Erka), a legitimate star of the stage, he doesn't just fall in love; he falls into a lie. A small misunderstanding leads her to believe he’s someone he’s not, and instead of correcting her, Stéphane leans in. He leans in so far he basically falls over.

This is where the film excels. It’s a modern farce that acknowledges how difficult it is to keep a secret in an era where everyone has a high-definition camera in their pocket. Johann Dionnet and co-writer Benoît Graffin (the writer behind the charming The Trouble with You) understand the mechanics of the "cringe." The film understands that theatre people are basically toddlers with better vocabularies, and watching Stéphane navigate the egos of the festival while maintaining his facade is genuinely stressful and hilarious in equal measure.

Timing is Everything (and Stéphane has None)

Comedy is a game of millimeters, and Baptiste Lecaplain has developed into one of the most reliable comedic engines in French cinema. He has a way of looking like he’s internally screaming even when he’s smiling. His chemistry with Élisa Erka is what grounds the movie. If Fanny didn't feel like a real person, Stéphane’s deception would just feel mean-spirited. Instead, Élisa Erka plays her with a blend of professional poise and genuine vulnerability that makes you understand why Stéphane would risk his entire career just to stay in her orbit for one more dinner.

The supporting cast is where the "family" genre tag really kicks in. The troupe feels like a real, dysfunctional unit. Romain Francisco as Etienne is a particular standout, providing the kind of grounded cynicism that every troupe needs when their lead actor is losing his mind. And then there’s Alison Wheeler as Coralie. Alison Wheeler is a scene-stealer by trade, and here she acts as a sort of chaotic neutral force that threatens to blow Stéphane’s cover every time she opens her mouth. Stéphane’s commitment to his lie is more impressive than most people’s commitment to their actual marriages, but Coralie is the reality check he keeps trying to dodge.

A French Farce for the Digital Age

In the current landscape of cinema, where every comedy feels like it’s being focus-grouped for global streaming "content" buckets, Rodrigue in Love feels refreshingly specific. It’s a French movie about a French festival, but the themes of imposter syndrome are universal. We live in a time where everyone is curated—our Instagram feeds are essentially the "boulevard plays" of our personal lives. Stéphane is just doing it without a filter.

The production by Nolita (the team behind I Am Not an Easy Man) gives the film a polished, sun-drenched look that makes Avignon look like a place where anything could happen, even a successful romance built on a foundation of absolute nonsense. The cinematography by Thomas Rames captures the claustrophobia of the backstage areas and the sprawling, dusty heat of the city streets, making the environment a character in itself.

Interestingly, this film arrived during a bit of a "theatre film" resurgence. While we’ve seen plenty of heavy dramas about the "sanctity of the craft," Dionnet isn't afraid to make fun of it. He mocks the pretension of the festival while clearly harboring a deep affection for the people who spend their last Euros to put on a play for twelve people in a converted basement.

Rodrigue in Love doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it polishes the one it has until it shines. It’s a fast-paced, well-acted comedy that manages to find the heart beneath a mountain of deceptive theatricality. If you’ve ever told a "white lie" that turned into a full-scale logistical nightmare, this film is going to hurt in the best way possible. It's a reminder that while the stage might have a script, real life is usually just one long, panicked improvisation.