L’État de grâce (1986) - film review

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...

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.

© James Travers 2011

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