In Catherine Corsini's drama 'An Impossible Love', a woman's life is shaped by her affair with an extremely selfish man. Later, he abuses their child. There should be a lot of good material here: about how society normalises male selfishness, and how we can blind ourselves to the unbearable truth and semi-consciously assist an abuser. However, the male character is so outrageous that any subtlety is lost, while the female protagonist cannot truly be blamed except for the stupidity of being in love - morally, she's unimpeachable. The result is a film that says rather less than it might have done. Meanwhile, the economic consequences of being abandoned as a single parent are basically ignored; overall, the film is surprisingly painless given its dark subject matter.

Perhaps the moral of this film is to avoid any potential partner who suggests you absolutely must read Beyond Good and Evil and/or Thus Spoke Zarathustra? (Mentioning Nietzsche's The Gay Science is possibly less of a red flag.)

Philippe (played by Niels Schneider) seems to have absorbed the idea that there is no absolute morality and has convinced himself that the world exists only to satisfy his desires and that he must pursue those desires at whatever cost to others. He's such a consistently obnoxious pig that it is difficult to believe that Rachel (played by Virginie Efira) would really persist in her pursuit of him, even if only to give their daughter legitimacy.

No one could possibly care what happens to Philippe, as he is clearly beyond redemption. And Rachel is quite an unsympathetic character, simply because she puts up with so much narcissism from Philippe.

"An Impossible Love" may or may not be based on a true story - according to Wikipedia it is not clear whether or not Christine Angot's source novel "L'Inceste" is fiction.

Typist Rachel meets translator Philippe in small-town 1950s France. Even on their first date there are signs he considers himself a cut above her: he suggests she should read Nietzsche. But he is charming, handsome, and Rachel finds him fascinating. A passionate affair ensues, but when Rachel finds herself pregnant Philippe declares he will not marry her and disappears out of Rachel's life for years at a time, not even making any financial contribution to baby Chantal's upkeep until she is a teenager. But despite his caddish treatment of her (which includes marrying another woman when he also knocks her up because she, unlike Rachel, comes from a rich family),he is always able to convince Rachel to welcome him back to her bed - until his ultimate betrayal. Years later, Chantal has grown into an unpleasantly self-centered individual and Rachel has new conflict with which to deal.

The problem with this film is Philippe is such a pantomime villain - superior, selfish, irresponsible and cruel, he has no redeeming features at all. If he is indeed based on a real person who did what Philippe does in the film, it would have been difficult for director/co-screenwriter Catherine Corsini to make him sympathetic, but it detracts from what is otherwise a very grounded story when one of the major characters is such a cardboard cut-out. Niels Schneider does what he can with the role, but inevitably is constrained by the limited dimensions of the character he must portray. Belgian actress Virginie Efira, as the mumsy Rachel, has more with which to play and delivers a likeable performance. There's also a very nice turn from Estelle Lescure as the teenaged Chantal.

Seen at the 2018 London Film Festival.