That Most Important Thing: Love movie storyline. Freelance photographer Servais (Fabio Testi) meets luckless Nadine Chevalier (Romy Schneider) an aging, world-weary, would-be movie star who thus far has only been able to find work in cheap exploitation movies. Trying to win her affection, Servais borrows the money from his underworld employers to launch a theatrical production of Richard III starring Nadine as Lady Anne.
Though cold and skeptical at first, Nadine gradually falls in love with Servais, and eventually finds herself torn between him and her husband Jacques (Jacques Dutronc), to whom she feels morally obligated. Set in a world of losers and futile talents, this dark and moody drama depicts love as the only source of salvation. Memorable performances and skillful direction make this film a powerful experience.
That Most Important Thing: Love (original French title: L’Important C’est d’Aimer) is a French film directed by Polish filmmaker Andrzej Żuławski. It tells the story of a passionate love relationship between Nadine Chevalier, a B-List actress (Romy Schneider), and Servais Mont, a photographer (Fabio Testi), in the violent and unforgiving French show business.
In 1975, Żuławski coadapted and directed this movie, based on the novel by Christopher Frank La Nuit Américaine (unrelated to the 1973 François Truffaut film of that name). The success in France was such – it was featuring the very popular actress Romy Schneider and French singer Jacques Dutronc – that it allowed Żuławski to come back to Poland. The film had a total of 1,544,986 admissions in France. Romy Schneider received the inaugural César Award for Best Actress for this role and Pedro Almodóvar dedicated his film All About My Mother partially to her in this role.
Film Review for That Most Important Thing: Love
Films by the Polish director Andrzej Zulawski, who died in 2016 at 75, generally begin at a level of emotional intensity that more conventional movies take a long time to reach, if they get there at all. His 1975 “L’Important C’est d’Aimer” (whose English title for this restoration is “The Importance of Loving”), is no exception.
Romy Schneider, as Nadine, an actress doing film work she finds disreputable, struggles on set to find the emotion in a lurid scene while Servais, a hunky, not-too-bright photographer played by Fabio Testi, tries to score tabloid dollars by shooting stills of her in the scene.
He becomes obsessed with Nadine, and is soon intruding on her domestic life, which includes a gay, movie-mad husband (Jacques Dutronc, who in 1975 was better known as a pop star than an actor) and not much else. Servais borrows money from the mobster-pornographer he often works for to bankroll an eccentric theater production of “Richard III” that he wants Nadine to star in. The title role in the play belongs to one Karl-Heinz Zimmer, played by Klaus Kinski at full Kinski volume.
Shot in the least picturesque parts of Paris and peopled with morbid eccentrics and grotesques, this picture, Zulawski’s third feature and his first made in France, is in certain respects among his most restrained. (It may be a good introduction to his work.) The searing, sometimes confounding film also ideally showcases the heartbreaking talents of Schneider, who deservedly won her first César award for her work here. The restoration, by Rialto for this United States release, is lovely; Ricardo Aronovich’s cinematography is largely a study of tragic faces, and when his light hits the whites of Schneider’s eyes a certain way, the effect is breathtaking.
That Most Important Thing: Love (1975)
Directed by: Andrzej Żuławski
Starring: Romy Schneider, Fabio Testi, Jacques Dutronc, Claude Dauphin, Roger Blin, Gabrielle Doulcet, Michel Robin, Guy Mairesse, Jacques Boudet, Katia Tchenko, Nicoletta Machiavelli
Screenplay by: Christopher Frank, Andrzej Żuławski
Production Design by: Jean-Pierre Kohut-Svelko
Cinematography by: Ricardo Aronovich
Film Editing by: Christiane Lack
Costume Design by: Catherine Leterrier
Makeup Department: Massimo De Rossi, Didier Lavergne
Music by: Georges Delerue
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: S. N. Prodis (France), Seaberg Film Distr. (US)
Release Date: February 12, 1975
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