ENTRE NOUS (Between Us)

French director Diane Kurys began her career of autobiographical filmmaking in 1977 with “Peppermint Soda” which recalled her adolescence. In 1981 her characters expressed the rebellion of May1968 in “Cocktail Molotov.” ENTRE NOUS was inspired by Kurys' childhood, during her mother's intense friendship with another woman which leads to the breakup of both women's marriages. Lena (Isabelle Huppert) and Madeleine (Miou-Miou) meet in 1952 in Lyon at a school play in which their children participate. Their backgrounds are totally different but there is an immediate attraction. Lena is a Russian-Jewish emigre whose marriage to a French soldier saved her from instant deportation to Germany during the Nazi occupation. Madeleine lost her first husband to collaborationists' bullets and is now married to a deadbeat actor. Madeleine sculpts and leads a more bohemian life than Lena's comfortable, middle-class existence. As their relationship develops into “a little more than friendship and a little less than passion,” the two women seek liberation in Paris. Huppert and Miou-Miou make you laugh and cry in this subtle, tender evocation of the French 1950s in the wake of WWII's upheaval. “ENTRE NOUS is funny, moving, virtually epic. . .illuminates the lives of its characters so beautifully it never has to explain them. Miss Kurys is a major new filmmaker.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times “Simply and intelligently, gently yet not passively. . .Kurys juxtaposes life's essentials – identity, freedom, self-expression – with the social and political textures of the time.” – Film Comment