Coup de foudre (1983)

Director:

Diane Kurys

Writers:

Diane Kurys (scenario and dialogue)
Diane Kurys (adaptation) ...
(more)

Release Date:

6 April 1983 (France)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | War

Plot:

In 1942 in occupied France, a Jewish refugee marries a soldier to escape deportation to Germany. Meanwhile...

Plot Keywords:

Liberation | Jewish | Marriage | 1942 | Refugee

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Miou-Miou	...	Madeleine
Isabelle Huppert	...	Lena Weber
Guy Marchand	...	Michel Korski
Jean-Pierre Bacri	...	Costa Segara
Robin Renucci	...	Raymond
Patrick Bauchau	...	Carlier
Jacques Alric	...	Mr. Vernier
Jacqueline Doyen	...	Mme Vernier
Saga Blanchard	...	Sophie
Guillaume Le Guellec	...	René
Christine Pascal	...	Sarah
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jacques Blal	...	Lionel Feldman
Bernard Cazassus	...	Le chef de gare
Gérard Chambre
Patricia Champane	...	Florence
François Cluzet	...	Un militaire
Jean-Claude de Goros	...	Le patron du cabaret
Norton de Matos	...	Journaliste (as Luís Norton de Matos)
Anne Fabien	...	La femme élégante
Dominique Lavanant	...	L'aboyeuse
Denis Lavant	...	Un militaire
Anne Lévy	...	Maria
Sonia Pfirmann	...	Louisa Feldman
Pascal Pistacio	...	Un militaire
Joseph Michael Roth	...	Un Militaire
Serge Ruben	...	André Feldman
Nils Tavernier	...	Le milicien

Directed by
Diane Kurys

Writing credits
Diane Kurys		(scenario and dialogue)
Diane Kurys		(adaptation) &
Alain Le Henry		(adaptation)

Produced by
Ariel Zeitoun	....	producer

Original Music by
Luis Enríquez Bacalov		(as Luis Bacalov)

Cinematography by
Bernard Lutic

Film Editing by
Joële Van Effenterre

Production Design by
Jacques Bufnoir

Costume Design by
Mic Cheminal

Production Management
Tadek Zietara	....	unit production manager

Art Department
Michel Conche	....	props

Sound Department
Alix Comte	....	sound
Harald Maury	....	sound

Production Companies

• Partner's Productions
• Alexandre Films
• Hachette Première
• Films A2
• S.F.P.C.

Distributors

• Gaumont (1983) (France) (theatrical)
• Studio Canal (2007) (France) (DVD)
• United Artists Classics (1984) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)

Other Companies

• Général Music  music editorial (as Editions General music France)

Also Known As:

Entre Nous (Australia) (USA)
At First Sight (UK)

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Sweden:11 | Australia:M | UK:15 | USA:PG | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Lyon, Rhône, Rhône-Alpes, France

Company:

Partner's Productions

Trivia:

The movie is based on Diane Kurys' parents and the woman that came between them.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: At the celebration following Liberation, the U.S. flag has 50 stars. At that time there would have been a 48-star flag.

This is supposed to be a "modern classic?"

For years, I've heard glowing praise of this movie....now that I've seen it, I feel the praise is largely undeserved.

The movie gets off to a bad start: It's unclear (at least from the subtitled version I saw) where the heck the characters are. It's obviously Europe and some kind of World War II era camp, but that's all I could glean....And in the early scenes with Miou Miou, where her first husband gets shot, it wasn't clear who was doing the shooting and/or why. According to the description on this site, it was the "resistance," whatever that means....(to be fair: perhaps most Europeans in 1983 understood the history without needing reference books, but this U.S. home video viewer in 2002 would have appreciated a bit more historical context)

As for the rest of the film....Slow, slow, slow. And with a lot of extraneous elements that never seemed to go anywhere.

Frankly, I was hoping for more romance between the two women, which you never really see. You just get Isabelle Huppert's husband being angry all the time.

And for the record, I didn't like the way the Miou-Miou character kept insulting her young son. None of these characters were particularly likeable, not even Isabelle Huppert. The ugliness of the characters detracted from my enjoyment of this, too.

I suppose this was considered really "avant garde" or something, in terms of subject matter, back in 1983, when it was released. But today it just falls really flat. A disappointment.