Taglines Sometimes the right love comes at the wrong time.
Sylvie’s Love Movie Storyline. The jazz is smooth and the air sultry in the New York summer of 1957. Sylvie helps around her father’s record store as she waits for her fiancé to return from war—until sweet saxophonist Robert walks in looking for a day job to subsidize his residency at the Blue Morocco lounge.
This chance meeting kindles a deep passion in each of them unlike anything they’ve felt before. Sylvie’s mother immediately disapproves and reminds Sylvie of her engagement, while Robert’s band books their first big gig overseas. As time passes, the sexual revolution begins, and Motown becomes king, the two fall in and out of each other’s arms, but never out of love.
Writer / director Eugene Ashe delicately melds romance and music into a sweeping romantic story that transcends changing times, geography, and professional success. Tessa Thompson shines as unapologetic, confident Sylvie in a groundbreaking role of a woman who takes control of her life in unexpected ways. With exquisite costumes and a timeless soundtrack, Sylvie’s Love is an ode to the unstoppable force of love in our lives.
Sylvie’s Love is a 2020 American drama film, written, directed and produced by Eugene Ashe. It stars Tessa Thompson, Nnamdi Asomugha, Ryan Michelle Bathe, Regé-Jean Page, Aja Naomi King, and Eva Longoria. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2020. It was released on December 23, 2020, by Amazon Studios.
About the Story
In New York City, 1962, Sylvie is waiting in the lobby of Town Hall, while Robert is in a recording studio playing the saxophone. Moments later, Sylvie recognizes Robert on the sidewalk outside a theater. Five years earlier, Sylvie’s father hires Robert to work at his record store in Harlem. Robert is the saxophonist for The Dickie Brewster Quartet, an up-and-coming jazz band from Detroit.
Sylvie and Robert bond over their shared love for music; Robert eventually invites Sylvie and her cousin Mona to a gig. Mona has a fling with Robert’s bandmate Chico while Sylvie, despite her engagement to a wealthy man named Lacy who is fighting in the Korean War, eventually starts a passionate affair with Robert. Some time later, the Dickie Brewster Quartet’s manager, a woman who calls herself the Countess, books them a job in Paris. Robert asks Sylvie to come with him. Sylvie refuses but bids him goodbye before his departure, hiding the fact the she is pregnant with his child from him as not to derail his career.
Back in 1962, Sylvie invites Robert to watch the concert with her. She learns that the band is doing well and is back in New York City to record an album. That night, Sylvie and Robert sleep together before she returns home to Lacy, now a successful businessman, and her daughter Michelle. Sylvie gets a job as a production assistant on a major cooking show produced by a black woman, Kate Spencer, a job Sylvie enjoys despite Lacy’s concerns that it will interfere with her duties as a wife. Robert sends Sylvie a ticket to his show, but she sees him in the parking lot with another woman afterwards and leaves.
Sylvie and Robert attend separate New Year’s Eve parties. Kate informs Sylvie that she is quitting to get married and is promoting Sylvie to take her place. Tensions spring up around the band; Sid, the record company executive who monitors the band, offers Robert a chance to record his own material. That night, Sylvie’s father has a heart attack and passes away; while in the hospital he calls Robert and tells him that Michelle is his daughter. During the funeral, Sylvie and Lacy agree to split up. Robert approaches Sylvie about Michelle’s paternity; eventually, she lets him meet Michelle, and Robert moves into her house.
Some time later, Robert approaches Sid about his offer, but Sid turns him down as he believes jazz is dying. Sylvie assures him that she can provide for them while Robert sorts things out. Robert tells Sylvie that he is thinking of contacting an old friend who had offered to put him in touch with Motown musicians, but if the job is successful, they will have to move to Detroit. The job offer turns out to be a fluke; upon returning to New York, Robert realizes that Sylvie loves her career for them too much to move. He tells Sylvie he got the job, but that he will move to Detroit alone. Sylvie tells him to leave. Robert returns to Detroit and gets a job at an auto plant.
The week of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Sylvie comes to D.C. to visit Mona, and runs into Dickie’s wife Carmen at the hotel. Carmen informs her that Robert is working at a plant. Mona muses that Robert did not tell her about the auto plant job for the same reason Sylvie did not tell him about the pregnancy: they did not want to destroy the other person’s career. Sylvie travels to Detroit and meets Robert at the plant. She tells him she can’t be happy without him in her life; the two reconcile.
Sylvie’s Love (2020)
Directed by: Eugene Ashe
Starring: Tessa Thompson, Nnamdi Asomugha, Eva Longoria, Aja Naomi King, Wendi Mclendon-Covey, Jemima Kirke, Tone Bell, Regé-Jean Page, Alano Miller, Raquel Horsford, Erica Gimpel
Screenplay by: Eugene Ashe
Production Design by: Mayne Berke
Cinematography by: Declan Quinn
Film Editing by: Dana Congdon
Costume Design by: Phoenix Mellow
Music by: Fabrice Lecomte
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some sexual content, and smoking.
Distributed by: Amazon Studios
Release Date: January 27, 2020 (Sundance), December 23, 2020 (United States)
Visits: 38
