Co-writer/Director Diana Kurys fashioned this intense drama as a chronicle of her parents failed marriage as well as her mother's relationship with another woman, a family friend, beginning in the French city of Lyon in 1952.
The narrative however begins with a flashback to the war years in which we first meet Lena (Isabelle Hupert) the character based on the director's mother. A Belgian Jew, Lena finds herself imprisoned in an internment camp run by the Vichy (collaborationist) government. The beleaguered Lena faces possible deportation to Germany and death in the extermination camps.
Out of the blue Lena receives a proposal from Michel (Guy Marchand), a French Legionnaire who is permitted his release from the army if he takes a bride. Lena agrees to marry Michel and they eventually escape to Italy.
Interspersed within this flashback is another one chronicling the fate of Madeline (Miou Miou), the family friend who Lena meets later on. I was a little confused at this juncture since Kurys indicates no demarcation between the two flashbacks.
Madeline has even a more harrowing time: while attending art school, the Germans arrive and arrest her instructor Carlier (Patrick Buchau). The French Resistance ambush the Germans and in the crossfire Madeline's recently married husband is killed.
Cut to post-war and we learn that Lena and Madeline meet at their respective children's school (Lena has two daughters) and Madeline a son (she's now married to part-time actor Costa, played by Jean-Pierre Bacri).
While the narrative proceeds very slowly, Kurys makes cogent observations about the burgeoning relationship between the two women. The sharp verisimilitude is obviously based on the director's detailed memory about her parents.
Lena's decision to stick with Michel as long as she does is undoubtedly based on her recognition that her husband is a good father to their two girls along with being an able breadwinner (he runs a fairly successful autobody shop). On the downside Lena regards Michel as uneducated with no finesse (for example she bemoans his lack of an ability to dance).
Michel soon sours on Madeline after he catches her having a fling with her old art instructor Carlier in their apartment after receiving permission from Lena. To add insult to injury, Michel gets no reaction as he obnoxiously kisses Madeline following her decision to have the encounter with Carlier.
Gradually a plot emerges: Costa borrows money from Michel to purchase those American shirts which all turn out to be missing a sleeve. Lena steals money from the till in the autobody shop to pay Costa's debt and then lies to Michel that she needed the money for a new headstone for her mother in Belgium.
After Michel travels to Belgium to the cemetery and discovers Lena lied to him, he then completely blows up at her after she forgets to take one of their daughters on the bus during a trip with Madeline (the daughter turns up unharmed after showing back up at Michel's shop).
But its Lena's relationship with Madeline that irks him the most. He comes to believe that they have become lesbian lovers and he's being abandoned.
Madeline decides to leave Costa who blames her for his failures in life. She goes to Paris and waits for Lena to join her. But Michel bribes Lena with the prospect of opening a woman's clothing store and eventually Madeline stops writing and has a nervous breakdown.
Lena then finds Madeline whose spirits are revived when Lena makes it clear that they should be together. In an upsetting scene, Michel goes into a rage after finding the two women together at the clothing store, which he virtually destroys.
It's unclear whether Lena and Madeline get physical at any point, but I surmise the two eventually do become lovers.
Kurys is not interested in assigning blame to anyone in particular here. Her portrait of Michel is complex as he is a loving father but too much of a control freak vis-à-vis women in general.
And Lena has her foibles too. Think of when she decides to satisfy her desires with that random sexual encounter she has with the soldier on the train.
Hupert and Miou Miou prove to be sensational in their two roles as women who cultivate a deep friendship independent of the influence of their respective spouses. The coda is poignant in which Kurys informs us of the death of Madeline two years earlier and that her parents never saw each other again after the breakup.
Some of the scenes are drawn out to the point where some viewers might briefly lose concentration. But ultimately this is a film marked by cogent observations about the nature of a fascinating friendship between two women.
The narrative however begins with a flashback to the war years in which we first meet Lena (Isabelle Hupert) the character based on the director's mother. A Belgian Jew, Lena finds herself imprisoned in an internment camp run by the Vichy (collaborationist) government. The beleaguered Lena faces possible deportation to Germany and death in the extermination camps.
Out of the blue Lena receives a proposal from Michel (Guy Marchand), a French Legionnaire who is permitted his release from the army if he takes a bride. Lena agrees to marry Michel and they eventually escape to Italy.
Interspersed within this flashback is another one chronicling the fate of Madeline (Miou Miou), the family friend who Lena meets later on. I was a little confused at this juncture since Kurys indicates no demarcation between the two flashbacks.
Madeline has even a more harrowing time: while attending art school, the Germans arrive and arrest her instructor Carlier (Patrick Buchau). The French Resistance ambush the Germans and in the crossfire Madeline's recently married husband is killed.
Cut to post-war and we learn that Lena and Madeline meet at their respective children's school (Lena has two daughters) and Madeline a son (she's now married to part-time actor Costa, played by Jean-Pierre Bacri).
While the narrative proceeds very slowly, Kurys makes cogent observations about the burgeoning relationship between the two women. The sharp verisimilitude is obviously based on the director's detailed memory about her parents.
Lena's decision to stick with Michel as long as she does is undoubtedly based on her recognition that her husband is a good father to their two girls along with being an able breadwinner (he runs a fairly successful autobody shop). On the downside Lena regards Michel as uneducated with no finesse (for example she bemoans his lack of an ability to dance).
Michel soon sours on Madeline after he catches her having a fling with her old art instructor Carlier in their apartment after receiving permission from Lena. To add insult to injury, Michel gets no reaction as he obnoxiously kisses Madeline following her decision to have the encounter with Carlier.
Gradually a plot emerges: Costa borrows money from Michel to purchase those American shirts which all turn out to be missing a sleeve. Lena steals money from the till in the autobody shop to pay Costa's debt and then lies to Michel that she needed the money for a new headstone for her mother in Belgium.
After Michel travels to Belgium to the cemetery and discovers Lena lied to him, he then completely blows up at her after she forgets to take one of their daughters on the bus during a trip with Madeline (the daughter turns up unharmed after showing back up at Michel's shop).
But its Lena's relationship with Madeline that irks him the most. He comes to believe that they have become lesbian lovers and he's being abandoned.
Madeline decides to leave Costa who blames her for his failures in life. She goes to Paris and waits for Lena to join her. But Michel bribes Lena with the prospect of opening a woman's clothing store and eventually Madeline stops writing and has a nervous breakdown.
Lena then finds Madeline whose spirits are revived when Lena makes it clear that they should be together. In an upsetting scene, Michel goes into a rage after finding the two women together at the clothing store, which he virtually destroys.
It's unclear whether Lena and Madeline get physical at any point, but I surmise the two eventually do become lovers.
Kurys is not interested in assigning blame to anyone in particular here. Her portrait of Michel is complex as he is a loving father but too much of a control freak vis-à-vis women in general.
And Lena has her foibles too. Think of when she decides to satisfy her desires with that random sexual encounter she has with the soldier on the train.
Hupert and Miou Miou prove to be sensational in their two roles as women who cultivate a deep friendship independent of the influence of their respective spouses. The coda is poignant in which Kurys informs us of the death of Madeline two years earlier and that her parents never saw each other again after the breakup.
Some of the scenes are drawn out to the point where some viewers might briefly lose concentration. But ultimately this is a film marked by cogent observations about the nature of a fascinating friendship between two women.