“Sylvie’s Love” is one of the loveliest and most romantic films I’ve seen in a while. It’s also one of the best films I’ve seen this year. Available now on Amazon Prime Video, the film stars a radiant Tessa Thompson as Sylvie. A young woman hanging out in her dad’s record store in NYC, while waiting for the return of her fiancée from the war, Sylvie falls for a new employee. Robert (Nnamdi Asomugha) is a young, ambitious saxophone player currently playing late night gigs in a jazz quartet. He’s extremely talented, but unlike her fiancée, Robert doesn’t have much money.
Over the summer of 1957, the young couple’s friendship grows into a passionate love affair. But their lives go in different directions and the relationship ends as summer winds down. After years of being a housewife and mother to a young daughter, Sylvie starts a career as a TV producer and becomes very successful. Her husband (Alano Miller)is a successful businessman who’s unhappy about Sylvie having a career, much less a successful one.
Sylvie’s Love Rekindled
Fast forward to 1963 when Robert, whose rise to fame as a jazz player has been undercut by the rising popularity of Motown, and Sylvie accidentally meet again. The couple discover their feelings for each other are as strong as ever. Writer/director Eugene Ashe casts a spell with this wonderful story about “changing times, a changing culture, and the true price of love.”
In his press notes, Ashe said, “Sylvie’s Love is an ode to the unstoppable force of love in our lives. The story centers on unapologetic and confident Sylvie, who takes control of her life in unexpected ways. She meets Robert, a talented saxophonist, and they kindle a deep forbidden passion in each other. As time passes, the world changes — the sexual revolution begins, and Motown becomes king –but while Sylvie and Robert may fall in and out of each other’s arms, they never fall out of love.”
“The film is a passion project for me; inspired by old photographs of my family from the 1950’s, and seeing the way they carried themselves with such dignity, I wanted to create a love story that showed the sacrifices and tribulations of true love. And as a former Sony recording artist, my relationship with my bandmates informed the camaraderie Robert shares with his. So it was important to me to create a story that put art, music, and love in the forefront, set in a world of old Hollywood glamour that’s been lost in time,” he said.
“Sylvie’s Love,” written and directed by Eugene Ashe, stars Tessa Thompson and Nnamdi Asomugha. The cast also features Aja Naomi King, Jemima Kirke, Tone Bell, Alano Miller, Erica Gimpel, and Lance Reddick (with Wendi McLendon Covey and Eva Longoria). The drama is rated PG-13, and runs 110 minutes.
