À nos amours (1983)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Maurice Pialat

Writers:

Arlette Langmann (writer)
Maurice Pialat (writer)

Release Date:

16 November 1983 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Suzanne is 15 and is having sex with many boys, just for fun, but did not manage to really love one of them...

Plot Keywords:

Love | Sailor | Happiness | Flirting | Sex

Awards:

3 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Sandrine Bonnaire	...	Suzanne
Maurice Pialat	...	L père
Christophe Odent	...	Michel
Dominique Besnehard	...	Robert
Cyril Collard	...	Jean-Pierre
Jacques Fieschi	...	Jacques - Le beau-frère
Valérie Schlumberger	...	Marie-France
Evelyne Ker	...	La mère
Pierre Novion	...	Adrien
Tsilka Theodorou	...	Fanny
Cyr Boitard	...	Luc
Anne-Marie Nivelle	...	Mère Jean-Pierre
Anne-Sophie Maillé	...	Anne
Pierre-Loup Rajot	...	Bernard
Jean-Paul Camail	...	Angelo

Also Known As:

Suzanne (France) (working title)
To Our Loves

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | Netherlands:16 | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:R | Iceland:12

Company:

Les Films du Livradois

Goofs:

Continuity: In the sequence with the American, Suzanne's outfit changes from a one-shoulder black dress with white stripes trimming just the top of the bodice, to a one-shoulder black&white striped top with a black skirt, and back again.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in JCVD (2008)

Soundtrack:

The cold song

As only the French can do.

If you are not tuned into the French psyche, then you haven't got a hope of enjoying a film like A Nos Amours. It's not that the French explore different life themes, or that they come up with original solutions to age-old universal problems, they just have that unique Gallic slant on everything - particularly the way people conduct their lives - which either enthralls you or infuriates you. Sandrine Bonnaire plays a pubescent girl who lives outside her emotions except when she's engaging in sexual intercourse. And she engages in plenty of that. She's a very happy person when in the company of young men in bed. She really doesn't have to pursue sexual partners, they find her and she's happy to accommodate. Needless to say, she lives in a dysfunctional family set up which is about to implode with the departure of her father from the familial home. She fights relentlessly with each family member, but it is her father she relates to and between them they have almost developed a normal father-daughter reciprocity. But she is not a normal girl and her listlessness can never really achieve happiness. Maybe she knows that she can never find love and she cannot understand why everyone else is so worried about it. After all, are they really happy in their lives? Can they force her to live the same way as they do? Will that make them happy? It certainly won't make her happy. I like narratives that avoid pigeon-holing characters and coming up with neat and pat solutions. The French seem to understand that life ain't simple, easy or formulaic, but it's better than the alternative and it's worth making the best of what you've got. 8-1/2 out of 10.