Down by Love

Down by Love is a French drama centred on Jean, the married director of a women's prison in Versailles who has a daughter and a respectable life. When he begins looking into the file of Anna, an inmate under his authority, the two fall into a passionate affair that neither can sustain. The story, drawn from real events, follows the affair and the different kinds of confinement it creates: Anna's is physical, while Jean's is psychological, as his family and career come under strain.

The film was directed by Pierre Godeau, who also wrote the screenplay, and it is the first of the three features he has directed, ahead of Headwind and Badinter. Guillaume Gallienne plays Jean and Adèle Exarchopoulos plays Anna, with Stéphanie Cléau, Aliénor Poisson, Cyrielle Martinez and Selma Mansouri in supporting roles. It was produced by Philippe Godeau, Cyril Colbeau-Justin and Jean-Baptiste Dupont, and runs 110 minutes.

Down by Love was released in 2016. On TMDB it holds a rating of 6 out of 10 from 198 votes, which suggests a modest but not dismissive response from viewers.