Post coïtum animal triste (1997)

Post coïtum animal triste is a French romantic film drama first released in 1997, directed by Brigitte Roüan.  The film stars Brigitte Roüan, Patrick Chesnais, Boris Terral, Nils Tavernier and Jean-Louis Richard.  It has also been released under the title: After Sex.  Our overall rating for this film is: mediocre.


Diane is a middle aged woman, married with two children, who has a successful career as a publisher.  Then she meets Emilio, an attractive young man, who seduces her.  The couple enjoy a passionate love affair, with Diane almost forgetting about her family and her job.  Then Emilio tells her that he wants to stop seeing her...

Brigitte Roüan both directs and stars in this unusual variant on the by now familiar tale of a doomed romance involving an older woman and a younger man.  Whilst the film looks good visually, it feels rather thin and lacking in content, relying far too much on Roüan’s spirited, but not exceptional, performance.

The film’s refreshing style (which uses flash-forward excerpts and unusual camera angles) only partly makes up for a lacklustre and overly familiar narrative, whilst the flat acting performances only emphasise its lack of substance.

This is not a bad film, but it lacks passion and conviction.  As such, it does not manage to engage with the audience at much more than a superficial level.

© James Travers 2000

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