Coup de foudre

Meidän kesken / Franska väninnor / GB: At First Sight / US: Entre nous. FR (c) 1983 Partner's Productions, etc. P: Ariel Zeitoun. D+SC: Diane Kurys - based on the book by Olivier Cohen and Diane Kurys (1983). DP: Bernard Lutic - Eastmancolor - Panavision 1:2,35. PD: Jacques Bufnoir. M: Luis Bacalov. Starring: Miou-Miou (Madeleine), Isabelle Huppert (Lena), Guy Marchand (Michel), Jean-Pierre Bacri (Costa), Robin Renucci (Raymond), Patrick Bauchau (Carlier). 113 min. A fine Ministère des Affaires Etrangères print with English subtitles by A. Whitelaw & B. Byron. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 29 Jan 2008. "A eux trois, je dédie ce film". A fine film about two women during some ten years, starting in 1942 during the Occupation of France and continuing until the 1950s. The character of Lena is based on the mother of Diane Kurys. Lena is rescued by marriage from a Nazi concentration camp in the Pyrenees, and Madeleine's boyfriend is killed by a Gestapo bullet. Lena has to face the insensitivity of her husband, and Madeleine is estranged from hers, and there are the children. The family situations are presented with vitality, the film is full of life. The women are more important to each other than men. The film is much better than I had expected by reading male reviews about it.