La Baule-les-Pins (1990)

La Baule-les-Pins is a French film comedy-drama first released in 1990, directed by Diane Kurys.  The film stars Nathalie Baye, Richard Berry, Zabou Breitman, Jean-Pierre Bacri and Vincent Lindon.  It has also been released under the title: C’est la vie.  Our overall rating for this film is: mediocre.


July 1958.  13-year-old Frédérique and her 8-year-old sister Sophie set out from their home in Lyons to spend their summer holiday in La Baule, on the northwest coast of France.   This year, however, neither their mother Léna nor their father Michel is accompanying them.  Instead, they are put into the care of Odette, the housemaid.  Unaware that their parents are on the point of separating, Frédérique and Sophie settle into their usual holiday routine, amusing themselves with their cousins and playing practical jokes on all and sundry.  The girls are delighted when their mother arrives, but the absence of their father causes them some anxiety.  One day, Léna is surprised to find her lover, Jean-Claude, on the beach.  An aspiring artist, he is planning to start a new life in New York, and he invites Léna to join him...

La Baule-les-Pins is the third in a loose trilogy of semi-autobiographical films in which director Diane Kurys draws on her experiences of childhood and adolescence.  It follows Diabolo menthe (1977), her promising début film, and Coup de foudre (1983), regarded as her best film to date.  Unlike these other two films, La Baule-les-Pins shows a distinct lack of inspiration and, whilst it has a certain charm, it is disappointingly lightweight and banal.  

On the plus side, the film is attractively shot and effectively contrasts the innocence and insouciance of childhood with the thorn-strewn paradise that is adulthood.  However, the characters are poorly developed and the script is little more than an accumulation of tired clichés, so the film overall fails to make much of an impression.  The high calibre cast is pretty well wasted and the performances are generally as bland as the writing and direction, with only Jean-Pierre Bacri and Richard Berry managing to puncture the beige envelope of insipidity in which the film is wrapped.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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