Swipe right on this trio of films from female directors on women and love

January is the month of physical and spiritual resets, where tradition dictates everyone must try to narrow the chasm between who they are and who they want to be. So it should be the ideal time for a film about a frustrated character who feels so stuck in a rut they feel compelled to make big changes. That might help explain the current trio of UK releases centred around women looking to reignite or redirect their love lives (another welcome commonality: all three come from female film-makers). 

The spicily hyped Babygirl, from Dutch actor-turned-writer/director Halina Reijn, sees Nicole Kidman play a driven tech company boss whose married sex life has never quite clicked. She embarks on an affair and her risky liaison with a 20-something company intern (Harris Dickinson) upends the expected power dynamics. 

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In a new incarnation of Emmanuelle, Noémie Merlant is a poised luxury hotel assessor who explores sexual obsession while on assignment in contemporary Hong Kong. French director and co-writer Audrey Diwan has said she was inspired by the original erotic novel published in the 1960s rather than the 1970s Sylvia Kristel softcore movies. The vibe seems more cerebral than lounging around topless in a peacock wicker chair.

The provocative marketing of these two films promises screen experiences that will bust some taboos, or at least tickle them. The third option is a more wholesome sexual safari. French comedy-drama It’s Raining Men stars Laure Calamy – the sunniest assistant in TV megahit Call My Agent! – as Iris, a well-to do Parisian who seems to have accrued all the elements of a perfect life: a handsome architect husband, two studious teen daughters and a successful career as a high-end dentist.

But as her 50th birthday looms, Iris increasingly feels like something vital is missing from her life. Her otherwise attentive husband Stéphane (Vincent Elbaz) is so career-focused that sex seems to have slowly drained out of their lives. When the couple retire to bed, he is glued to his work laptop while she is left reading books.

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It is at a chaotic PTA meeting that a fellow mum diagnoses Iris’s problem and prescribes the solution with startling speed: download a dating app for married women and “take a lover”. Iris settled down long before the rise of swiping right so has to learn the ropes of matching, messaging and sharing pics as she goes.

As the potential hook-ups for Iris stream in, director and co-writer Caroline Vignal smartly breaks out from the tiny phone screen to a more cinematic representation. Her suitors are visualised as fellow passengers on a busy Metro train carriage, each addressing Iris directly with their romantic spiel, hoping to snag her attention.

That slightly fantastical feeling stretches to the dates themselves. After an initially clumsy assignation in a bar, Iris rapidly streamlines her dating approach with a set of no-strings rules designed to protect her domestic life – she has no intention of leaving Stéphane – and minimise any attachment. She will meet each man only once and they will not discuss personal details. Luckily her wide range of matches, from an ageing would-be Lothario to a nervous young student, are all essentially nice guys. Even the S&M dude turns out to be surprisingly wholesome.

Juggling an online dating life can be a full-time job, so there is inevitably a knock-on effect on Iris’s home and work life – Calamy wrings a lot of comic mileage out of explaining away her constantly buzzing phone as notifications from eBay auctions – but it is clear that things are headed towards a crisis point with the slightly bewildered Stéphane. But the upbeat energy suggests the chances of rapprochement are good.

All this may not chime with the reality of online dating, which can be a minefield of red flags and gaslighting. It might also seem out of step with the current situation in France, a country reexamining misogynistic attitudes to consent in the aftermath of the horrifying Gisèle Pelicot rape trial. But with its occasional swerves into heightened reality, It’s Raining Men signals that it is not a state-of-the-nation drama but something more celebratory. (It’s hard to even think of the film’s title without instinctively adding the obligatory “hallelujah”.)

If it still sounds rather lightweight, you could always swipe left on Iris and try Babygirl or Emmanuelle instead. But if you’ve been missing the talented Calamy since Call My Agent! wrapped up she gets to fully embrace the spotlight here, and that giddiness is infectious.

It’s Raining Men is in cinemas now.

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