Co-writer/Director Diana Kurys fashioned this intense drama as a chronicle of her parents failed marriage as well as her mother's relationship with another woman, a family friend, beginning in the French city of Lyon in 1952.

The narrative however begins with a flashback to the war years in which we first meet Lena (Isabelle Hupert) the character based on the director's mother. A Belgian Jew, Lena finds herself imprisoned in an internment camp run by the Vichy (collaborationist) government. The beleaguered Lena faces possible deportation to Germany and death in the extermination camps.

Out of the blue Lena receives a proposal from Michel (Guy Marchand), a French Legionnaire who is permitted his release from the army if he takes a bride. Lena agrees to marry Michel and they eventually escape to Italy.

Interspersed within this flashback is another one chronicling the fate of Madeline (Miou Miou), the family friend who Lena meets later on. I was a little confused at this juncture since Kurys indicates no demarcation between the two flashbacks.

Madeline has even a more harrowing time: while attending art school, the Germans arrive and arrest her instructor Carlier (Patrick Buchau). The French Resistance ambush the Germans and in the crossfire Madeline's recently married husband is killed.

Cut to post-war and we learn that Lena and Madeline meet at their respective children's school (Lena has two daughters) and Madeline a son (she's now married to part-time actor Costa, played by Jean-Pierre Bacri).

While the narrative proceeds very slowly, Kurys makes cogent observations about the burgeoning relationship between the two women. The sharp verisimilitude is obviously based on the director's detailed memory about her parents.

Lena's decision to stick with Michel as long as she does is undoubtedly based on her recognition that her husband is a good father to their two girls along with being an able breadwinner (he runs a fairly successful autobody shop). On the downside Lena regards Michel as uneducated with no finesse (for example she bemoans his lack of an ability to dance).

Michel soon sours on Madeline after he catches her having a fling with her old art instructor Carlier in their apartment after receiving permission from Lena. To add insult to injury, Michel gets no reaction as he obnoxiously kisses Madeline following her decision to have the encounter with Carlier.

Gradually a plot emerges: Costa borrows money from Michel to purchase those American shirts which all turn out to be missing a sleeve. Lena steals money from the till in the autobody shop to pay Costa's debt and then lies to Michel that she needed the money for a new headstone for her mother in Belgium.

After Michel travels to Belgium to the cemetery and discovers Lena lied to him, he then completely blows up at her after she forgets to take one of their daughters on the bus during a trip with Madeline (the daughter turns up unharmed after showing back up at Michel's shop).

But its Lena's relationship with Madeline that irks him the most. He comes to believe that they have become lesbian lovers and he's being abandoned.

Madeline decides to leave Costa who blames her for his failures in life. She goes to Paris and waits for Lena to join her. But Michel bribes Lena with the prospect of opening a woman's clothing store and eventually Madeline stops writing and has a nervous breakdown.

Lena then finds Madeline whose spirits are revived when Lena makes it clear that they should be together. In an upsetting scene, Michel goes into a rage after finding the two women together at the clothing store, which he virtually destroys.

It's unclear whether Lena and Madeline get physical at any point, but I surmise the two eventually do become lovers.

Kurys is not interested in assigning blame to anyone in particular here. Her portrait of Michel is complex as he is a loving father but too much of a control freak vis-à-vis women in general.

And Lena has her foibles too. Think of when she decides to satisfy her desires with that random sexual encounter she has with the soldier on the train.

Hupert and Miou Miou prove to be sensational in their two roles as women who cultivate a deep friendship independent of the influence of their respective spouses. The coda is poignant in which Kurys informs us of the death of Madeline two years earlier and that her parents never saw each other again after the breakup.

Some of the scenes are drawn out to the point where some viewers might briefly lose concentration. But ultimately this is a film marked by cogent observations about the nature of a fascinating friendship between two women.

Diane Kurys knew a lot about women's relationships. Growing up as a daughter of a couple who met on a camp during the Second World War, she examined female psychology in different stages of life through her films. One of the most successful ones was "Coup de foudre", made in 1983. The phrase means "love at first sight" and by seeing the film, I understand why it was chosen as its title.

It's 1942. A woman, Léna (Isabelle Huppert), marries a Jew (Guy Marchand) in order to escape deportation from France. Another, Madeleine, (Miou-Miou) loses her lover to an ambush of the Resistance. Their paths will cross ten years late. Now, Madeleine has a new husband, while Léna still lives with Michelle. They are both free-spirited, spontaneous and smart; in short, kindred spirits. So starts a friendship, a bit different from the others. So different, in fact, that it threatens to destroy the marriages of both.

At the time in which the film is set, women in France had few rights and lots of obligations imposed to them by the conservative society. They were responsible for the household, the children (because, of course they had children, how would France get brave sons and nice daughters?), and generally everything except work, which was the man's job. They couldn't even get a car without their husband's permission! It is evident that the two heroine's were oppressed in this society, which expected them to fulfill their role as prudent, responsible wives, without personal desires.

In the 80's, a lot had changed. Women were more independent, they could work without being discriminated against, except for some jobs, were they still faced criticism because of these professions being considered "masculine", like the police (see for this, "La femme flic" by Yves Boisset, also starring Miou-Miou). Women had it better, and so started to examine their position during these decades of oppression that had preceded their own. "Coup de foudre" was a product of this process.

It is interesting to see how Kurys showed these women's position in the society. The heroines are just expected to give up on their dream of opening a boutique so as to devote their life to their families. And, what about the thought of them being friends, or even something more? How would the civilized French society accept this? Diane Kurys based the character of Isabelle Huppert on her mother, something which makes the story even more interesting. If the character is almost real, this means that her mother was actually treated like how the film showed in the 50's. To think of that now is truly depressing.

As for the performances, they were excellent. Both Miou-Miou and Isabelle Huppert were very convincing and likeable. The way they portrayed their friendship and how it grows was very sweet and kept the film going, since I couldn't wait to see how they would end up. The male actors were also commendable, especially Guy Marchand, who, with his performance as Michel, Léna's husband, represented an archetype of the classic 50's husband, one who is the breadwinner of the family, but doesn't hesitate to punish this family if the other members (especially the wife) don't behave the way he wants. I wonder if Guy Marchand had something with playing strict fathers, since his role in "P'tit con" (1984) was similar to his one in "Coup de foudre", if a little kinder.

The music was admirable for the fact that it transported me to this time. Comprised of French- and English-language hits of the time, it wasn't appealing to me aesthetically, but it retained the realistic character of the film.

All in all, I found the film interesting both from a sociological and an aesthetic perspective. It is admirable for the way it tried to do justice to women in a period when they were not exactly respected, and for its solid performances by capable actors. Watching this in a time when I will not be criticized for wearing trousers in public, or expected to have children by twenty, I felt glad not to have been born back then. Of course, this doesn't means that the 50's were only an oppressing time for women. There's always the other side, and I am eager to discover it.

I first saw Entre Nous in the mid-to-late 80's. At the time, the list of "lesbian movies" could be counted on your fingers with several left over. The majority of those had one party returning to men while the 'die hard dyke' was left with a broken heart. Even "Desert Hearts", one of the more positive movies out in the 80's had one character leaving the other kind of up in the air. The fact that this was a true story, written by one of the character's daughters, who was obviously not forever scarred by her mother choosing a woman over her father made it even more positive. The history is clear for those who know anything about France during WWII. It's not an action-packed movie, it's not supposed to be. The characters are not perfect, they're real people. I wouldn't call it the greatest movie of all time but I own it and I feel that it's worth watching. Besides, Miou Miou is HOT. *grin*