There’s a seemingly effortless breeziness about this film (often exhibited in the many instances of ‘snapshot scenes’ peppered for the film’s seasoning). However – within minutes, I was already won over…and was held throughout. I can approach a French film with a sense of trepidation – as I just did with ‘Cousin, Cousine’. Or it will get it just right (as has sometimes happened with some films by Bresson and Truffaut, two filmmakers who aren’t particular favorites of mine). I can’t exactly pinpoint the reason for that – except I often sense that a French film is either trying too hard or not hard enough. I’m very tough on French films, in general. ~and, by that, I don’t mean box office success, although I seem to recall it was very well-received at the time of its release. A once-must, as a particularly successful French comedy. No, but it’s recommended for one-time viewing.įirst viewing. Marchand breaking things off with his six extra-marital lovers.A light-hearted look at infidelity and sexual mores in the 1970s.From the beginning of the film, we’re made to sympathize with the long-suffering Barrault and Lanoux, who accept their spouses’ philandering with an air of insouciant sadness once they discover their attraction for one another other, we can’t help but cheer them on, because their spouses deserve to worry and wonder.
It’s easy to understand why American audiences were so taken with it, given that it represents a decidedly “European” approach to love and marriage - one which allows for an unconventional, free-spirited attitude towards extra-marital affairs.
This lilting French comedy - essentially a tale of romantic revenge - is listed as a cult movie in the back of Peary’s book, and was remade in 1989 as Cousins, starring Isabella Rossellini and Ted Danson. “What we have is extraordinary… It has to stay that way.”Īfter meeting at a family wedding, a woman (Marie-Christine Barrault) and her distant cousin (Victor Lanoux) become friends and then lovers, while their philandering spouses (Guy Marchand and Marie-France Pisier) get increasingly jealous.