How do you start over after life-changing events? Director Lisa Azuelos’ film “I Love America” explores the consequences and rewards surrounding the question. ’America,’ while fictional, represents much of what the filmmaker was experiencing. Azuelos—like her main character—became an empty nester and dealt with the death of a parent. The combination of stressful events ultimately led the filmmaker to create the project. “I began to write things that were not for a film but in which I talked about myself,” the writer and director said of its origins.
For the film’s lead, the director behind 2008’s “LOL (Laughing Out Loud)” needed someone who could connect to the character. Actress Sophie Marceau, known to international audiences for her performances in “Anna Karenina” and “The World Is Not Enough,” proved to be the perfect fit. Azuelos found the actress to have an “intense zest” that pays off in the role.
The film’s official synopsis:
I Love America follows the adventures of Lisa (Sophie Marceau), who decides to transform her life by leaving Paris for Los Angeles. Her children have left the family nest and her famous mother, absent throughout her life, has just died: Lisa therefore needs a fresh start! She reunites with her best friend Luka (Djanis Bouzyani) who has made a name for himself professionally in America by opening a famous drag queen bar, but his love life is as complicated as it is prolific. Luka makes it his mission to help Lisa revive her long dormant love life by creating a profile for her on a dating app. Through uncomfortable dates and an unexpected romance with John (Colin Woodell), Lisa finds out that the real reckoning is with herself, if she can finally forgive the person who was her first love… her mother.
A voyage of self-discovery unfolds in “I Love America.” The Lisa Azuelos film premieres worldwide April 29 on Prime Video. Get your first look at the trailer below.