Diabolo menthe

The director's Entre Nous is one of my favorite movies. I had never seen Peppermint Soda, which I understood was equally autobiographical, so rented it. It's quite different in style from Entre Nous - covers far less time, and the "events" in the two sisters' lives are all quite "micro".

Yet it's also true that I cannot think of anything that portrays adolescence as it really was (for boys as well as girls) as well as this movie. Kurys has a truly remarkable feel for the extent to which music on the radio was a back-drop, or the way that a long-running dispute with a parent over clothing (in this case, nylons) can punctuate daily life, or the way friendships in school change over time. It's really a brilliant movie - not the most entertaining, but in its way, profound and well worth seeing. You will find yourself liking it more and more and more as the movie develops.

Insight-filled story of one year (1963-64) in the lives of two French sisters, living in Paris with their divorced mother and trying their best to cherish the joy while coping with the pain of growing up. Director Kurys, who dedicated this, her first film, to her own sister "who still hasn't returned my orange sweater," obviously knows whereof she speaks, since the character's ages correspond to her own growing up years. Nevertheless, the actual time period doesn't become clear until late in the movie, and the characters and incidents are certainly universal.

As the older sister, Odile Michel is lovely, and does a capable job with her role. The gem in this movie, though, is Eleanore Klarwein, who is captivating as the younger, more sensitive sibling who doesn't yet understand all that is going on around her, but struggles onward to meet each day nonetheless.

Movie of a generation, "Diabolo menthe" was a success as it was one of the first showing its youth with sincerity. It is now a real testimony of what was to be young in the 60's. School, parents, friends, society, it is interesting to see how things has so much changed - and at the same time, not that much: childs are always child, the dreamed discipline of glorious past times doesn't exist, ...

If the movie is an interesting testimony, I was not thrilled by it as a movie, and, even if the youg actors do not have to blush of their performances, I rate this just as okay.

Diane Kurys made her directorial debut with 1977's "Diabolo menthe" ("Peppermint Soda" in English), about a pair of sisters in Paris amid the politically heightened period of 1963-64. This is the first movie of Kurys's that I've seen, so I can't compare to the rest. I also wasn't alive at the time depicted, so I can't judge the authenticity.

What I can say is that the movie establishes a fine depiction of what it's like to come of age, especially in a less-than-welcoming setting (the school comes across more like a prison). I would've liked it more had it depicted the girls getting into the Beatles - wouldn't that have happened in 1963-64? - but aside from that, the movie gives one a feeling of growing up in the era. A well-made coming-of-age movie, just like "The 400 Blows", "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Stand By Me". I hope to see the rest of Diane Kurys's movies.

As a child from the late 70s, this movie was a famous experience for me in the 80s. I remember that we talked a lot about if in my family. Honestly, even as a boy, i connect easily with the younger Anne: quiet, daring, lost, arguing with the parents, on charge with her sibling (like a battery) and meeting the inner desire.

The family life in Paris in the sixties looks like mine, twenty years later in a provincial town: educational system grinding young students, silly teachers, discipline over all, pocket money, letters, nice clothes... So this movie feels amazingly authentic and in addition, it's told with innocence, kindness and modesty.

But, sadly, this world and this Paris are gone now. Now the benchmark is Ozon Jeune & Jolie in which student girl dreams to become prostitute for sex and money! World has changed for worst but luckily we have still movies like Diabolo Menthe to remember how cool it was.