Mouret’s ‘Tres Amigas’ Revisits Allen, Explores the Fragility of Love and Friendship
A poignant exploration of fractured relationships and self-sabotage, Emmanuel Mouret’s upcoming film, Tres Amigas, slated for release on July 11, 2025, appears to be a deliberate echo of Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters, prompted by the evocative verse: “No one, not even the rain, has so small hands.”
The film delves into the complexities of desire, love, and the often-painful space between intention and action. As one observer notes, Mouret’s cinema, much like Allen’s best work, understands that desire isn’t a grand declaration, but rather “what happens between a dialogue line and the following, between the formulation of a thought (a fantasy) and the effects of its execution.”
Tres Amigas centers on Joan, who grapples with the dishonesty of remaining in a loveless marriage with Victor. Her confession to her friend Alice is met with reassurance, as Alice claims a similar lack of passion in her own relationship with Eric. However, this facade crumbles with the revelation of Alice’s affair with Rebecca, a mutual friend. The subsequent disappearance of Victor throws the lives of all three women into disarray.
The narrative, imbued with the spirit of Chekhov and a “light and playful Bergman,” focuses on the ruptures, betrayals, and self-destructive tendencies that plague modern relationships. The film’s strength, according to early analysis, lies in its exploration of the delicate balance between preserving friendship and pursuing uncertain love.
Mouret, known for his previous works The Things We Say, The Things We Do (2020) and Chronicle of an Ephemeral Love (2022), continues to demonstrate his signature style: a preference for transparent sequence shots, nuanced direction of actors, and remarkably fluid and sharp dialogue. While some critics suggest the film doesn’t break new ground, it introduces a compelling element of melancholy through the “present absence” – the unexplained vanishing of a key character.
The film doesn’t shy away from the “collateral damage” of heartbreak and infidelity, presenting these experiences within a framework of “bourgeois human comedy.” However, this is tempered by a pervasive sense of fragility, a feeling that happiness can be easily extinguished, “spilled in a drop of that small rain that the poet imagined.”
Ultimately, Tres Amigas offers a nuanced rereading of Allen’s classics, finding value in its “lightness” while acknowledging its lack of significant innovation. The film, starring India Hair, Camille Cottin, Sara Forestier, and Damien Bonnard, promises a compelling, if familiar, exploration of the reasons of the heart.
Technical File:
- Address: Emmanuel Mouret
- Department: India Hair, Camille Cottin, Sara Forestier, Damien Bonnard
- Country: France
- Year: 2024
- Premiere date: July 11, 2025
- Gender: Dramatic comedy
- Script: Carmen Leroi, Emmanuel Mouret
- Duration: 117 min.
- Synopsis: Joan is no longer in love with Victor and hurts not being honest with him. Alice, her best friend, reassures her by assuring her that she also does not feel passion for her partner Eric and yet her relationship goes to the stern. What Alice ignores is that he has an adventure with Rebecca, her common friend. When Joan finally decides to leave Victor and this disappears, the lives of the three friends get upside down.
