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I want to name a short film as 'Beautiful love'. This love story is from point of view of a young girl. Is 'Belle Amour' correct? I want to use belle and not bel because it is a female`s point of view.

Also I might instead name my film-making company as 'Beautiful love'. The company owner is a female and wants some name that describes a feminine thought. So Belle Amour Films could be the name of the company.

In either of the above cases, is 'Belle Amour' correct? Please note that, here love is used as a concept i.e love story and not to describe a person.

None
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Amour is one of those words that are masculine in the singular and feminine in the plural. In Old French feminine was used in the singular as well.
Nowadays we only use the masculine in the singular in everyday language but poetic licence can allow you to do lots of things, and you'd not be the first one to use belle amour in the singular. Ma belle amour is a French song by Quebecois singer Michel Rivard. La belle Amour is the title of a song by French singer Barbara. Belle Amour is the name of a shop that sells wedding dresses (no commercial link but you can easily google it). La belle amour humaine is the title of a book by Haitian French speaking writer Lyonel Trouillot. And we'd probably find plenty more.
So there's absolutely no reason why you couldn't name a film Belle Amour. Although you might prefer Ma (or Une) Belle Amour since orally Belle Amour would sound ambiguous and most people would take it down in writing as Bel Amour which is not what you want.

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  • I totally agree with this rich answer. I would like to add a side comment in response to the OP's precison Please note that, here love is used as a concept i.e love story and not to describe a person. In French, using capitalized initials somewhere else than in first word of the sentence is normally reserved to proper nouns, so it generally tends to make the reader preferably think to a person (especially for Amour), even in the context of poetic licence. So it's not incorrect but I think that it goes at the opposite of the OP's will. – cFreed Aug 11 '16 at 18:19
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Amour being a masculine noun, you should use 'bel amour' regardless of context.

Nico Mezeret
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  • Thanks Nico. Does 'Bel Amour' have any gender inclination? And is there a feminine form for Amour? – Anks Aug 05 '16 at 07:57
  • Since you're simply calling love beautiful, there are no gender implications. The gender of nouns in French are so ingrained in the language that 'amour' being a masculine noun has absolutely no effect on making the reader think that that love can only relate to a male. I'm not sure there is a feminine synonym for 'amour', but if you really wanted you could use 'une belle histoire d'amour', as 'histoire' is a feminine word. This would translate as 'a beautiful love story'. – Nico Mezeret Aug 05 '16 at 08:08
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    FYI, "amours" in its plural form is feminine, and "belles amours" is therefore a correct form. As a side note, many French speakers, upon hearing or reading "bel amour", will think of Maupassant's novel Bel-Ami. – Alexandre d'Entraigues Aug 05 '16 at 08:36
  • @Alexandred'Entraigues wouldn't using the plural form of amour alter the meaning to a more sexual connotation? – Nico Mezeret Aug 05 '16 at 08:53
  • (mon) bel amour, just like mon amour is absolutely appropriate for a man or a woman without any difference. – SteffX Aug 05 '16 at 17:21
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Beautiful love would translate to bel amour but, as a title, bel amour alone would be more suitable for a person, which is not what you want.

By contrast, Un bel amour is more suitable for a love story.

In any case, it does not matter if it is spoken by a man or a woman.

SteffX
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