Coup de foudre (1983)
Directed by Diane Kurys

Film Review

With two remarkable actresses in the principal roles and a woman film 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. This was the third feature from director Diane Kurys, whose characteristically female-oriented brand of cinema includes the engaging coming-of-age drama Diabolo menthe (1977) and lavish George Sand biopic Les Enfants du siècle (1999).

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 are perfectly cast in this film - Huppert (who also featured in the director's Après l'amour) is the passive, repressed Léna, and Miou-Miou is 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.

Film Synopsis

In 1942, Léna, a young Russian Jew, is interned in a camp in southern France.  Her only hope of avoiding deportation to Nazi Germany is to go through with a marriage of convenience with a French solider, Michel.  Once they get to know each other, Léna and Michel decide to remain together.  Meanwhile, Madeleine, a young arts student in Lyon, marries Raymond.  Not long afterwards, Raymond is killed by the militia whilst serving in the French Resistance.  Ten years later, Léna has settled in Lyon with Michel and meets Madeleine at a fête at the school attended by their children.  The two women hit it off straight away and realise they have much in common.  Michel comes to regard Madeleine as a rival and forbids his wife from seeing her.  But the two women continue to meet in secret, growing ever closer to one another as they lose connection with the men in their lives...