Coup de foudre

I first saw Entre Nous in the mid-to-late 80's. At the time, the list of "lesbian movies" could be counted on your fingers with several left over. The majority of those had one party returning to men while the 'die hard dyke' was left with a broken heart. Even "Desert Hearts", one of the more positive movies out in the 80's had one character leaving the other kind of up in the air. The fact that this was a true story, written by one of the character's daughters, who was obviously not forever scarred by her mother choosing a woman over her father made it even more positive. The history is clear for those who know anything about France during WWII. It's not an action-packed movie, it's not supposed to be. The characters are not perfect, they're real people. I wouldn't call it the greatest movie of all time but I own it and I feel that it's worth watching. Besides, Miou Miou is HOT. *grin*

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon.)

Michel (Guy Marchand) falls in love with Jewish refuge Lena (Isabelle Huppert) at first sight and offers marriage as a way she can avoid being sent to a German concentration camp. She accepts, and although she doesn't love him, they have two children and are still married when we pick up the action again in Lyons in 1952 when Lena is 29-years-old. There she meets the sophisticated and well-to-do artist Madeleine (Miou-Miou) who awakens her to the drabness of her existence as a housewife with a loutish husband who now runs a gas station. The attraction between Lena and Madeleine is very strong, and very threatening to the men, especially to Michel.

Huppert's poignant and bittersweet portrayal reminds me of her delicate work in Madame Bovary (1991). There is the same listlessness expressed along with a vague desire for something better out of life, and the anticipation of the sadness that we know will come of such desire. Miou-Miou is sharp and cynical with perhaps a streak of the manic-depressive about her. The love they spontaneously feel for one another is real and beautiful and makes us want it to be fulfilled. But Lena holds herself back because of her family, and then it is the men and propriety that get in the way.

Of course this is very French and Lena and Madeleine hold hands and comfort one another while telling each other their innermost secrets including the infidelities of their spouses, etc. (The men have no such communication.) Director Diane Kurys exercises more restraint in showing the physical nature of their mutual attraction than would be displayed today. Lena says to Madeleine at one point, "I want to kiss you," but we do not see them kissing. The most explicit scene sexually is the startling, but delicately expressed, meeting with the soldiers on the train where we discover the full extent of Lena's frustration.

This is not quite a great movie. The pace is a little slow in spots and sometimes the focus is not as sharp as it could be. But it is an extraordinarily honest movie, and I'll take that over sharp technique any day. Huppert is not only at her best here, but her exquisite and subtle beauty is shown to great advantage. Miou-Miou is also very pretty of course--this is the first time I've seen her--so I would say her strength of character is perhaps her strongest suit. This is a human tragedy on a small, intimate scale, one that we can't help but feel could have been averted had those involved understood one another better, had they been a little wiser. We've all been there before and so we can share the sadness and the sense of loss.

Diane Kurys made four films out of her childhood and adolescent experience; that's one of the richest mining for memories in cinematic history. Besides Coup de foudre/Entre nous, there are C'est la vie, Diabolo menthe/Peppermint soda, and Cocktail Molotov (which I have commented on). Kurys's experience is growing up Jewish in post-war France, where the social values are secular but the traditions of the community she belongs to are not.

The story of Lena and Michel may seem bizarre to North Americans--they meet and marry on the same day to escape deportation to the death camps--but it must have seemed quite understandable to the people who had to live through that madness. That Michel loves Lena passionately while she finds him dull and vulgar is also normal. These people are making-do with what they've been given, as are Madeleine and Costa, the other unhappy couple.

You either love or hate Isabelle Huppert--I must admit to the latter many times over the years, but Miou-Miou is worth whatever the rental or purchase price for this picture is: she's just wonderful; the smallest gesture of her hand carries so much meaning. One great scene has Costa, the world's worst businessman, bent over the sewing machine trying to add sleeves to shirts with only one sleeve that he's bought on the black market; Madeleine stands in the next room working at a sculpture, simultaneously trying to console Costa and quietly make him realize what a mess their lives have become.

The Germans have broken through the Maginot Line like rotten burlap, and France has made a humiliating peace. Miou-Miou, Isabelle Huppert -- odd to think of her so early in her career she's second-billed -- and their husbands leave Paris to try to take up lives in Vichy France. Times are hard, everything is shabby, including the men's business schemes, and they're hard on their wives, who draw closer in reaction.

It's a very nice feminist movie that doesn't make the men monsters -- they're just as bewildered with a world turned upside down as anyone else. Nonetheless, it's a pleasure to watch these two fine actresses give their performances as they come to understandwhat friendship means.

The sweetest thing about this film is the portrayal from a daughter's view of her parents' struggles with who they are and their relationships with each other. The ending dedication of the film is quite poignant. This film is a reminder of the ways our lives are thrown together and how that intertwines with the choices we make. This is a bittersweet love story on more than one dimension.