Coup de Foudre

After dealing with the growing pangs of being a teenager during the '60s in Diabolo Menthe, Diane Kurys here turns to the problems of her parents' generation. In 1942, Huppert buys her way out of a camp for Jews in occupied France by marrying an ex-Legionnaire who proposes in a coup de foudre. Ten years later, a prosperous bourgeoise in Lyon, she meets an artist (Miou-Miou) who is equally disaffected with her marriage to a good-natured no-hoper. Their developing relationship, 'a little more than friendship and a little less than passion', is the core of the film, enabling them to kick against the pricks. It's all very much in line with the sort of 'Women's Picture' at which Dorothy Arzner was once adept in Hollywood: hardly likely to stretch or threaten the system, but showing - without resorting to melodrama - the desire and heartbreak of everyday life. CPea.