If you’ve spent any time digging through the dark corners of "lost" cinema, you've probably stumbled across the name Mektoub My Love Intermezzo. It’s not just a movie. It’s a four-hour fever dream that basically ended the career of its director, Abdellatif Kechiche. Honestly, it’s one of the most bizarre stories in modern film history.
Imagine winning the highest award in cinema (the Palme d'Or) and then, a few years later, premiering a sequel so hated that two-thirds of the audience walked out before the credits rolled. That’s exactly what happened at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. Since that night, the film has effectively vanished. You can’t stream it. You can’t buy the Blu-ray. It’s a ghost.
Why Mektoub My Love Intermezzo Is So Hard To Find
So, what’s the deal? Why is a movie that premiered at the world's most prestigious film festival currently impossible to watch? It’s a mix of legal nightmares, financial collapse, and a very public fallout with the lead actress, Ophélie Bau.
Basically, Kechiche went rogue. He was originally supposed to make a straightforward sequel to his 2017 film Canto Uno. Instead, he delivered Intermezzo, which consists almost entirely of young people dancing in a club for three and a half hours. Critics were beyond furious. They called it voyeuristic, boring, and "leery trash." But the real trouble started when reports surfaced that the actors were pressured into performing an unsimulated sex scene.
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Ophélie Bau didn't even stay for the screening. She requested to see the final cut of the sex scene before the premiere, Kechiche said no, and she walked. That bridge wasn't just burned; it was nuked.
The 13-Minute Scene That Caused the Chaos
The "Intermezzo" controversy mostly centers on a 13-minute sequence in a club bathroom. It's graphic. It’s messy. And according to sources like IndieWire, it looked way too real to be "acting." There were even allegations that the director gave the actors alcohol to help them finish the scene.
Kechiche defended it, saying he wanted to capture the "metaphysical aspect of the body." Most people just saw it as a long, uncomfortable scene that lacked the emotional weight of his previous work, like Blue Is the Warmest Colour.
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The Financial Purgatory of 2026
Fast forward to today, in 2026, and the situation hasn't gotten much better. The production company went insolvent years ago. Kechiche even had to auction off his Palme d'Or trophy just to pay for the editing of the first film.
There's also a third movie, Mektoub, My Love: Canto Due, which finally premiered at the Locarno Film Festival in 2025. It took six years to get that one out of the editing room. But Intermezzo? It remains the "black sheep" middle child. Distribution companies like Pathé and Wild Bunch essentially ran for the hills.
- The Length: 212 minutes.
- The Plot: There barely is one. It’s mostly dancing and small talk.
- The Reputation: 10% on Rotten Tomatoes.
What Really Happened with the Cast?
It’s easy to blame the nudity, but the real breakdown was psychological. Kechiche is known for a "method" that involves shooting hundreds of hours of footage. He wants reality. He wants exhaustion.
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By the time they were filming Mektoub My Love Intermezzo, that style had pushed the cast to their breaking point. In 2020, Bau finally broke her silence, explaining that her issue wasn't the nudity itself—she had agreed to the scene—but the lack of respect in how it was handled afterward. She wanted agency over her image. Kechiche denied her that.
Can You Watch It Anywhere?
Short answer: No.
Long answer: Unless you were in that theater in Cannes in 2019, or you find a very shady bootleg from a festival projectionist, you’re out of luck. There were rumors of a "new cut" that removed Bau entirely, but that never surfaced either.
With Kechiche reportedly suffering health issues recently, including a stroke in late 2025, the likelihood of him returning to re-edit or release Intermezzo is slim. It has become a piece of "forbidden" media—a cautionary tale about what happens when an artist's obsession overrides everything else.
Actionable Insights for Cinephiles
If you're desperate to understand the Mektoub vibe without the trauma of the missing sequel, here is what you can actually do:
- Watch Canto Uno: It’s actually a beautiful, sun-drenched movie about youth in the 90s. It’s available on several VOD platforms.
- Read "La Blessure, la vraie": This is the novel by François Bégaudeau that the movies are loosely based on. It gives you the story Kechiche was trying to tell before he got lost in the club lights.
- Track the 2025 Locarno Reviews: If you want to see how the story "ends," look up the recent reviews for Canto Due. It apparently brings some closure to the characters of Amin and Ophélie, even if you missed the "interlude" in the middle.
The story of Mektoub My Love Intermezzo is a reminder that in the film world, "lost" doesn't always mean a movie was destroyed in a fire. Sometimes, it’s just too toxic to exist.