He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

He Loves Me He Loves Me Not (French: À la folie... pas du tout) is a 2002 French film directed by Laetitia Colombani and starring Audrey Tautou.

The film's plot follows Angélique, a successful art student who has just won a prestigious scholarship. In between creating her art projects, she has a part-time job at a cafe and house sits for a wealthy vacationing family. Angélique is in love with Loïc, a handsome cardiologist. Loïc is married and his wife is pregnant, but Angélique insists to her friends who know about the affair that Loïc will soon leave his wife for her.

There are twists ahoy. Best to watch it and enjoy.

Tropes used in He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not include:
  • Anger Montage
  • Artistic License: Law: A person incarcerated in a mental hospital because of a series of violent crimes is unlikely to ever be released, never mind only a few years after the incidents in question.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The statuette of the human heart on Loïc's office desk, which Angélique uses to bludgeon him near the end of the film.
  • CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Loïc performs this on Angélique after her attempted suicide.
  • Downer Ending
  • Driven to Suicide: Halfway through the film, after it becomes clear that Loïc does not plan on leaving his wife, Angélique turns on the gas and lies down on the kitchen floor.
  • Dr. Jerk: Loïc. Turns out it's subverted when the perspective is switched.
  • Genre Shift
  • Hard Head: Averted. At the end of the film, years after having sustained a concussion when Angélique bludgeoned him with the heart statuette, Loïc is seen walking with a cane with some difficulty - evidently there was indeed some kind of brain damage caused by the blow.
    • Or he fell awkwardly when she struck him.
  • Hospital Hottie: Loïc, so much so that one of his patients repeatedly comes back and demands that he examine her (as she immediately removes her shirt), despite his protests that her heart is fine.
  • Insanity Defense
  • Internal Reveal: The audience finds out what's going on long before Loïc does.
  • Mad Love: The Reveal of the movie.
  • Once More, with Clarity: The second half of the film is a protracted one of these.
  • One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Loïc and David's confrontation in Loïc's office.
  • The Ophelia: Angélique.
  • Perspective Flip: Halfway through the film, everything rewinds to the opening shot and we see the whole story again from a different point of view.
  • Playing Against Type: Numerous critics pointed out that Angelique's whole character is a subversion (or even deconstruction) of the character she played in Amelie.
  • Rashomon Style
  • Red Herring: For Loïc, but not the audience. He variously suspects a colleague of his and one of his more persistent patients of stalking him.
  • Room Full of Crazy: Two rather unsettling examples.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: Nat King Cole's "L-O-V-E" is used repeatedly throughout the film, and eventually it takes on a rather sinister feeling because of the contexts in which it is heard.
  • Stalker Shrine: Angélique has created a very... artistic one. She creates another one from her pills in the asylum.
  • Tap on the Head: An unusually realistic example.
  • Twist Ending
  • Typecasting: Brutally subverted; Audrey Tautou's character is essentially an Expy of the titular protagonist of Amelie, or so it appears at first.
  • Unlucky Childhood Friend: David, who clearly loves Angélique but gets blown off (and even used) because she's in love with Loïc.
  • Yandere: Angélique.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/He_Loves_Me..._He_Loves_Me_Not?oldid=1829832"