In 1942 in occupied France, a Jewish refugee marries a soldier to escape deportation to Germany. Meanwhile a wealthy art student loses her first husband to a stray Resistance bullet; at the Liberation she meets an actor, gets pregnant, and marries him. Lena and Madeleine meet at their children's school in Lyon in 1952 and the intensity of their relationship strains both their marriages to the breaking point.
Acting
Huppert and Miou-Miou communicate entire novels in glances.
Direction
Kurys turns domestic spaces into pressure cookers of desire.
Costume
1950s Lyon fashion that cages as much as it adorns.
Director
Diane Kurys
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Kurys based this on her own mother's hidden wartime diary—she found it after her parents' death.
Released in 1983, this was one of the first French films to center a lesbian relationship without moral panic or exploitation.
No ratings yet
Sign in to join the discussion — comments are spoiler-gated to your watch progress.
Discussion starters
FR
