I had read the book Love Me Tender when it came out, and it really moved me. It shed light on and said new things about motherhood, at a time when I was also asking myself questions about my identity as a mother, a woman, and a writer. A little over a year later, I was approached by producers to do an adaptation. It took several months before I put pen to paper, during which I met with Constance and we felt sure about it, she and I. — Anna Cazenave Cambet
In 2015, Constance Debré jettisoned a husband and her job in Paris as a criminal defense attorney. Applying the expressive techniques of her former career to a prose style remarkable for its efficient, almost clinical precision, she started writing. Eventually leaving her belongings on the street and moving into a 100 square foot room, she downsized with brutal efficiency as well. Within a few years, she published Playboy (2018), followed two years later by Love Me Tender, and then Nom (2022). Described by the author as “novel[s],” she adds: Everything is true. The main character is made out of me. And the events are representations of true events. But it’s not at all a memoir. It’s not about me. The difference is that there is a form.
And now there is another form—cinema. This week at The American French Film Festival 2025, writer-director Anna Cazenave Cambet presents the North American Premiere of Love Me Tender. If Playboy describes two relationships—the first with an older woman, the second with a younger one—undertaken while Debré’s marriage was ending, Love Me Tender’s first-person narration portrays a much more undomesticated lesbian (named Clémence in the film), seemingly more devoted to the sex act itself than to any individual trick or partner. (At least until she meets Sarah.) Between assignations, a far more tortuous battle plays out: the fight with her estranged husband Laurent—passive-aggressive, disingenuous, a walking catalogue of bad faith—over the custody of their son Paul.
Sometimes I can’t remember his face, nor his voice. I wonder whether he’s grown up, what he’s like. It occurred to me when I went over to Apollonia’s the other day, when I saw her sons. It’s crazy how much they’ve grown in a year. I thought of Paul and how much he must have changed, too. Two Christmases, one of his birthdays, one Mother’s Day, two of my birthdays. And all of the days in between. — Love Me Tender
For her adaptation, Cambet has cast the great Vicky Krieps as Clémence. Viggo Ferreira-Redier plays her son, Paul, and Antoine Reinartz plays his father. Sarah is played by Monia Chokri. Join the filmmaker for a Q & A after the screening. See info and links below for details.
LOVE ME TENDER
Written and directed by Anna Cazenave Cambet
The American French Film Festival
Wednesday, October 29, at 8:35 pm
Q & A with the director following the screening
Directors Guild of America
7920 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles
theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org/love-me-tender
LOVE ME TENDER will also screen at USC on Thursday afternoon, October 30.
For free reservations, see:
Cambet quotation: Tarik Khaldi, “Love Me Tender, as seen by Anna Cazenave Cambet,” Festival de Cannes website, May 20, 2025.
festival-cannes.com/love-me-tender-as-seen-by-anna-cazenave-cambet
Debré interview: Sammy Loren, “‘I Hate Books for the Happy Few’: An Interview with Love Me Tender Author Contance Debré,” Autre, January 18, 2023.
autre.love/an-interview-constance-debre
Love Me Tender section: Constance Debré, Love Me Tender, trans. Holly James (South Pasadena, CA: Semiotext(e), 2022), 76. First published in French as Love me tender (Paris: Flammarion, 2020). Copyright © Constance Debré, Flammarion, 2020, and Semiotext(e), 2022.
mitpress.mit.edu/love-me-tender
Anna Cazenave Cambet, Love Me Tender (2025), from top: Vicky Krieps (left) and Monia Chokri; Viggo Ferreira-Redier and Krieps; Love Me Tender North American poster; Antoine Reinartz and Krieps.
Film stills and poster courtesy and © Be For Films.
