La Nouvelle Ève (1999)
Directed by Catherine Corsini

Film Review

This galloping romantic comedy makes a plausible, although far from original, statement about the frustrations of a modern woman (the ‘new Eve'), but it is somewhat hampered by an aimless plot and some weak characterisation. Despite one or two entertaining moments, the whole thing appears weak and overly reliant on unconvincing stereotypes (particularly of lesbians and men in general).  The film's one saving grace is an ebullient performance from Karin Viard, who plays the feisty, emotionally unbalanced Camille with gusto.

Film Synopsis

Not for Camille the oppressive yoke of matrimony.  She may be thirty but she has no intention of settling down just yet.  She enjoys her freedom far too much to do anything so rash and grown-up as starting a family.  She would rather flitter from one meaningless liaison to another, taking from life what she can without getting herself trapped by convention or that ghastly overrated thing called love.  The prospect of ending up like her brother - married to a dull woman and saddled with a constantly bawling baby - is not one that appeals to her.  And yet doesn't she secretly envy those in a long-term relationship?  Is she perhaps missing out on something by playing the modern liberated woman to excess?   These are the very thoughts that occur to her when Alexis suddenly enters her life, unexpected and uninvited.

Alexis awakens something in Camille, something she has never experienced before.  She isn't just attracted to him physically.  She feels something deeper - the need to hold onto him.  This is presumably why she ends up taking part in his activities as a Socialist Party supporter.  After a night spent sticking up campaign posters in the pouring rain, Camille follows Alexis home and is surprised to find that he is already married and has two daughters.  The rational thing for her to do would be to end the affair there and then, but no, Camille stays with it and ends up befriending Alexis's wife Isabelle and their children.  After a while, the affair seems to have run its course and Camille refuses to go on being the mistress to a man who has no intention of leaving his wife.   Instead, she opts to marry another man she scarcely has any feeling for and soon manages to get herself pregnant.  It is then that Alexis re-enters her life, with the news that he is at last a free man...