C’est la vie [La Baule-Les Pins] **** (1990, Nathalie Baye, Julie Bataille, Richard Berry) – Classic Movie Review 11,806

Nathalie Baye at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.

Director Diane Kurys’s 1990 French semi-autobiographical 1990 drama film C’est la Vie [La Baule-Les Pins] stars Nathalie Baye, Julie Bataille, Richard Berry, Zabou Breitman, Candice Lefranc, Jean-Pierre Bacri, Vincent Lindon, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Alexis Derlon.

Two young sisters, Frédérique and Sophie (Julie Bataille, Candice Lefranc), spend the summer of 1958 at a beach resort at La Baule-Les Pins on the Atlantic coast separated from their maman, Lena Korski (Nathalie Baye). Frédérique (Batail) fails for her cousin Daniel (Alexis Derlon), as she realises that her parents’ marriage is in trouble.

This is Kury’s delightful and penetrating fourth slice of autobiography following Peppermint Soda, (1977), Cocktail Molotov (1980) and Coup de Foudre [At First Sight] [Entre Nous] (1983).

It is an exquisitely acted and beautifully photographed (by Giuseppe Lanci) chamber piece with an affecting bitter-sweet tone and lots of authentic late 50s atmosphere. Kurys persuades you it must really have been like this. It is narrated mainly in voice-over from the diary of the 13-year-old Frédérique.

The cast are Nathalie Baye as Léna Korski, Richard Berry as Michel Korski, Zabou as Léna’s sister Bella Mandel, Jean-Pierre Bacri as Léon Mandel, Bella’s husband, Vincent Lindon as Léna’s lover Jean-Claude, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi as the nanny Odette,  Julie Bataille as Frédérique, Candice Lefranc as Sophie, Alexis Derlon as Bella and Léon’s eldest son Daniel, Emmanuelle Boidron as Suzanne, Bella and Léon’s youngest daughter, Maxime Boidron as Bella and Léon’s third child René, and Benjamin Sack as Titi.

The films of Diane Kurys: Peppermint Soda (1977), Cocktail Molotov (1980), Coup de Foudre [At First Sight] [Entre Nous] (1983), A Man in Love (1987), C’est la vie (1990), Love After Love (1992), À la folie (1994), Children of the Century (1999), I’m Staying! (2003), L’anniversaire (2005), Sagan (2008), For a Woman (2013), Arrête ton cinéma (2016).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,806

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