Camille and Sullivan are young and in love. She greets him with “my Romeo” when he comes to her window, but this is no Shakespearean tragedy. Instead, in Mia Hansen-Løve’s clear-eyed and knowing portrait of young love, sudden, mutually consuming folly is replaced by something more complex if no less passionate. Though he professes his devotion, Sullivan also longs to travel and chafes at the intensity of Camille’s affection and need. When he takes off with his friends for a ten month backpacking trip to South America, his parting seems like the end of the world to Camille, but it’s just the beginning of more complicated and tenacious emotions that will stretch through the years. Hansen-Løve’s delicate touch and her obvious affection for her characters make this a memorable rendering of one of cinema’s most cherished subjects.

Un amour de jeunesse, France 2011, 110 min. Written by Mia Hansen-Løve. Photographed by Stéphane Fontaine. With Lola Créton, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Magne-Håvard Brekke, Valérie Bonneton, Serge Renko, Özay Fecht. In French, Danish and German with subtitles. IFC Sundance Selects.