Black people have very few opportunities to see ourselves in sweeping romantic dramas like the films that used to dominate Old Hollywood. We've certainly had movies like Love Jones and Stella Meghie's forthcoming romantic drama, The Photograph. However, outside of Diana Ross' Mahogany and Lady Sings the Blues, films in the same romantic vein as Casablanca, An Affair to Remember and It Happened One Night, or even contemporary period pieces like The Notebook, have largely been reserved for white actors and storytellers within the tight confines of American Cinema's studio system. Now, we have Sylvie's Love.
Set in the summer of 1957, writer and director Eugene Ashe's aesthetically stunning Sylvie's Love is a sweeping old-fashioned romantic drama about missed moments, extraordinary love and staying true to yourself. Robert (Nnamdi Asomugha), a quiet but brilliant saxophonist, stumbles into Sylvie's (Tessa Thompson) world on a sweltering summer day in Harlem.
While Robert and his group, the "Dickie Brewster Quartet," are gaining traction in the music scene, Sylvie is stuck. With her fiancé Lacy (Alano Miller) overseas in Korea, the aspiring television producer spends her days watching I Love Lucy and Father Knows Best in her father's record shop. She entertains herself by lounging with her cousin Mona (Aja Naomi King) on the record shop's rooftop and dodging her bougie mother's lessons on being a lady.
From the moment Sylvie and Robert meet there is a spark. They experience that sizzle and connection that draws them to one another like magnets. The pair embark on a whirlwind summer romance, full of late-night dancing and stolen kisses. Yet, Sylvie's engagement ring is a constant reminder of their reality, especially when Robert and the quartet receive an opportunity to take their music to Paris.
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