Talky. Thought-provoking. Credible performances evoke sympathy for the people concerned. Originally entitled Coup de Foudre, (lightning strike - a French idiom for Love at First Sight). Up close and personal the film explores the breakup of two marriages. Why this should have to happen in this way can be
attributed to any number of reasons or a combination thereof as presented in the film. Ultimately it is left up to the viewer to decide. The story is said to be autobiographical of director Diane Kurys, who also collaborated on the screenplay for this movie.
A young Belgian Jewish woman named Lena, displaced by the Nazi invasion in 1940 war-torn Europe, ends up in a French refugee camp where she catches the eye of one of the guards who says that he wants to marry her. Lena accepts the man's proposal, if only to get out of incarceration before the advancing Germans take over the area and deport the camp's occupants out of the country to certain death. As the two are about to take their vows, however, Lena learns that her husband to be, Michel, is also Jewish, putting her in grave danger, but it's too late now to change her mind. The newlyweds decide to travel south to Italy where they manage to survive the rest of the war hiding out. As the result of this shared experience their feelings for one another appear to deepen over time.
In the 1950s we see the happy couple comfortably ensconced in Lyons, France, with their two young daughters, where Michel owns a garage and makes a good living for his family servicing vehicles. It is not glamorous work, the hours are long, but it is steady income and enough money for Lena to go around in nice clothes, furs, fine jewelry, take expensive vacations, and have a live-in helper to do the housework, cooking, and child care as needed. At the local grammar school's Christmas Pageant, Lena meets Madeleine, a sculptress whose young son is also a student there in the lower grades. The two women like one another almost immediately, and quickly become drawn into each other's lives. As their relationship deepens, however, their marriages run into more and more serious trouble eventually culminating in divorce for both women. Was this fate, or a coincidence or something else entirely?
March 18, 2010
