The film stars Laetitia Dosch and Sergei Polunin, with Lou-Teymour Thion, Caroline Ducey, Grégoire Colin and Slimane Dazi.

Alexandre occasionally shares personal details about himself with Hélène, telling her about his parents and revealing that he lives on Tverskaya Street in Moscow.

Principal photography began on 19 January 2019 and concluded on 5 March of that year, with filming taking place in Paris and the surrounding region, as well as in Lyon, Florence and Moscow.

[5] Simple Passion was originally set to premiere at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, prior to its cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The website's critics consensus reads, "Simple Passion's rather unremarkable story is elevated by Laetitia Dosch's outstanding work in the central role.

[21] Huw Oliver of Time Out, rating the film four out of five stars, wrote that although "[t]he only real slip is the soundtrack", "Dosch's charisma and Arbid's fluid style suffice to convey the full intensity of this particular histoire d'amour.

"[22] Sophie Brown of Sight and Sound praised Arbid's direction and the soundtrack, while comparing the cinematography to that of director Éric Rohmer's 1980s films, particularly Boyfriends and Girlfriends (1987).

[26] Jonathan Romney of Screen Daily criticised the "leadenly unimaginative pop soundtrack" and stated, "While hardly avant-garde, the film displays considerable audacity, sexual and formal, but also a certain lifestyle glossiness – an uneasy balance that is likely to undermine its appeal either to the more discerning art-house crowd or to the niche sector of more mainstream Francophiles.

"[27] Glenn Kenny of The New York Times wrote, "While keeping a stalwart female perspective, Simple Passion follows an arc so standard it could be called banal.

"[28] Graham Fuller of The Arts Desk commented, "It's a shame the tension created by [Hélène and Alexandre's] feverish pas de deux and the torturous aftermath is dissipated by the awful selection of non-diegetic pop songs added to the soundtrack.

"[1] Diego Semerene of Slant Magazine gave the film one-and-a-half four stars and criticised Arbid's adaptation of Ernaux's novel, stating, "Instead of trying to translate Ernaux's uncanny ability to viscerally connect readers to Hélène's despair, through affect or mood, Arbid's film coldly relies on the novel's narrative situations".