That Most Important Thing: Love

That Most Important Thing: Love (L'Important c'est d'aimer, 1975) is Andrzej Żuławski's fever-pitch melodrama, free to watch online on iFILM. Servais, a photographer who pays the rent shooting things he'd rather not, falls for actress Nadine the moment he sees her humiliated on a sleazy film set.

To rescue her from poverty, Servais sinks into debt to buy Nadine a part in a lavish stage production — a chaotic theatre venture with a deranged lead actor played by Klaus Kinski. But Nadine is married. Her husband once adored movies and life itself, and now barely clings to either. Romy Schneider plays the woman caught between them with an intensity that aches.

Żuławski films desire as something closer to a breakdown: loud, raw, with no safe middle ground. Schneider won the very first César for Best Actress for this performance, with Fabio Testi and Jacques Dutronc as the two men pulling at her. Stream That Most Important Thing: Love online on iFILM.