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Overview
L’État de grâce is a French romantic film drama first released in 1986,
directed by Jacques Rouffio.
The film stars Nicole Garcia, Sami Frey, Pierre Arditi, Philippe Léotard and Dominique Labourier.
It has also been released under the title: State of Grace.
Our overall rating for this film is: good.
Synopsis
France, 1981. Antoine Lombard is the secretary of state for
Universities in the newly elected social government. During a
hostile meeting with the employers’ union, he meets Florence
Vannier-Buchet, a hard-headed businesswoman who owns one of the
country’s largest sportswear companies. Their politics may be
diametrically opposed, but Antoine and Florence are drawn to one
another by an intense mutual attraction, and they are soon perusing a
passionate love affair. When he begins to suspect that his wife
is cheating on him, Florence’s husband, a prominent banker, insists
that they get divorced. Florence refuses. Despite her love
for Antoine, she cannot bring herself to give up the wealth and
prestige that she currently enjoys, or so she thinks...
Film Review
Magnetic performances from Nicole Garcia and Sami Frey salvage an
otherwise lacklustre romantic comedy which is somewhat marred by plot
contrivance and poor character development. Garcia was something
of a high-class sex symbol in France when this film was made and her
explicit love scenes with Frey are sensual without being
gratuitous. As ever, Jacques Rouffio’s direction is more
workmanlike than inspired, although he cannot prevent the supporting
artistes - notably Pierre Arditi and Philippe Léotard - from
looking like spare limbs. The screenwriters’ attempts to link the
central love story up with contemporary French politics (the industrial
strife of the early 1980s) appear heavy handed and merely distract us
from what the film should be about, which is Garcia’s and Frey’s
personal quandary over their seemingly ill-matched love affair.
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Credits
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