An Impossible Love

An Impossible Love follows Rachel, a modest office worker in late-1950s Châteauroux who becomes involved with Philippe, a young man from a wealthy, influential family. Their brief, passionate affair produces a daughter, Chantal, but Philippe refuses to marry outside his social class and does not acknowledge the child. Rachel raises Chantal alone, and her love for her daughter becomes the centre of her life. Over more than a decade she fights for Philippe to give Chantal his name, a struggle that weighs on both mother and daughter. The story is drawn from Christine Angot's novel.

Catherine Corsini directed and co-wrote the film with Laurette Polmanss; Elisabeth Perez produced it. It is Corsini's fourth feature in the listed order, arriving between Summertime and The Divide. Virginie Efira plays Rachel and Niels Schneider plays Philippe, with Jehnny Beth as the adult Chantal and Estelle Lescure as the adolescent Chantal. Coralie Russier and Iliana Zabeth also appear. The production was shared between France and Belgium, with France 3 Cinéma, Artémis Productions, CHAZ Productions and Le Pacte among the companies behind it, and it runs 135 minutes. On TMDB it holds a rating of 6.6 out of 10 from 239 votes, which suggests a modest but not indifferent response.