Fabrice Luchini Delivers His Final Lesson: Martin Provost's 'Love Lessons' Premieres at Locarno
Fabrice Luchini plays a beloved French teacher bidding farewell to his classroom in Love Lessons, Martin Provost's new drama that premiered at the 79th Locarno Film Festival. The film, whose French title is Demain Je Tombe Amoureux ("Tomorrow I Fall in Love"), screens in the Swiss festival's official programme as a fully French production sold internationally by Paradise City Sales (Cineuropa).
On the eve of retirement, Émile delivers one last lesson about love and literature, urging his students to become the poets of their own lives. The story is set in Dieppe, Normandy, a coastal town whose cliffs and grey waters give the film its visual texture. Provost, who previously directed Luchini in Séraphine (2008), wrote the screenplay with Marc Abdelnour (The Hollywood Reporter).
The ensemble is a who's-who of French cinema. Emmanuelle Devos plays Lala, Émile's first love from his teenage years. Carole Bouquet appears as Nadege, an animal-rights activist. Chiara Mastroianni takes the role of Audrey, a woman who discovers her husband's affair. Rounding out the cast are Hélène Alexandridis, Evelyne Istria and Klara Csordas (The Hollywood Reporter). The runtime sits at 1 hour 54 minutes.
Behind the camera, the production chain is a familiar European one. Les Films du Kiosque, the Paris-based outfit, produces, with coproducers Vera Michalski Hoffmann and Denis Pineau (Deadline). The Belgian company Umedia also joins as a coproduction partner (Umedia). Paradise City Sales handles international rights, meaning the film is now available for distributors in territories from North America to East Asia to acquire ahead of a theatrical run.
That marketplace function matters. Locarno, held each August on the shores of Lake Maggiore, is one of the older film festivals in the world and serves as a bridge between the summer festival circuit and the autumn awards corridor that begins in Venice and Toronto. A premiere here puts a film in front of buyers, programmers and critics before the season intensifies.
Unifrance, the body that promotes French cinema abroad, lists Love Lessons among the French titles presented at the 79th edition of the festival (Unifrance). The film was shot entirely in French and is classified as 100 per cent French in nationality.
Deadline released the first trailer in early August 2026, giving buyers and audiences a look at Luchini's performance before the premiere (Deadline).
For audiences, the appeal is straightforward: a cast of established French actors in a literary drama about love, regret and the things a teacher leaves behind. Whether Love Lessons secures distribution in major markets beyond the Francophone world will depend on how the film lands with buyers at Locarno — and that is the chain of decisions, festival by festival, territory by territory, that determines which films reach which screens.
