Coup de foudre (1983) - film review

In 1942, a young Jewish woman, Léna, marries a French soldier, Michel, to avoid being deported to Germany.   Meanwhile, another young woman, Madeleine gets married to an artist, Raymond, who is subsequently killed by a Resistance sniper.  During the Liberation, Madeleine meets and later marries another man, Costard.  Ten years later, the two women meet at their children’s school and find that they have a natural affinity for one another.  They spend more time together and begin to make plans for the future.  But as their friendship grows, the two women seem to drift further away from their husbands...

With two formidable actresses in the leading roles and a female director, Coup de foudre is a rare French film with a distinctly feminine perspective.  This is important because the film is about an intimate, yet platonic, relationship between two women, a theme which is seldom explored as thoroughly and candidly in French cinema.

Whilst the film is not without some faults (for example, the uneven pacing and some unnecessary attempts at tear-jerking), it does manage to depict very convincingly the value and power of a woman-woman relationship, and the strains this can bring to the husband-wife relationship.  One of the unwritten edicts of our society is that a wife can have close female friends, but the husband cannot have such close male friends.  This is possibly one of the factors that can contribute to a marital breakdown, and it is this theme that Coup de foudre addresses with great maturity and sensitivity.

Probably the best thing about this film is its beautiful yet alluringly melancholic photography – particularly the war-time scenes at the start of the film, which display a meticulous attention to detail.  The camera work is often brilliantly evocative and lends much to the emotional integrity of the film.

The acting performances are equally enjoyable.  Miou-Miou and Isabelle Huppert need no introduction – both are renowned for playing complex and emotionally troubled female characters.  They seem perfectly cast in this film – Huppert as the passive, repressed Léna, and Miou-Miou as the disenchanted but optimistic Madeleine.  Guy Marchard is also an fine form, playing the difficult role of Léna’s husband.  There is a magnificent tension between the three characters which really does convey the impression of a brewing storm.   The poignant ending is excellently pre-empted, and this serves to reinforce the profound sense of loss which afflicts Léna and her husband.

© James Travers 2000

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