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La Parenthèse enchantée
2000 Comedy / Drama / Romance
Review
Although this film features an impressive cast who put in some spirited performances,
its heavy intellectual pretensions weaken its impact greatly. The idea of the film
certainly has some merit: an unsentimental reflection on the period of the sexual revolution
(the years 1969-1981 were christened la Parenthèse enchantée by the eminent
French journalist Françoise Giroud). Unfortunately, its director (Michel
Spinosa) doesn’t get anywhere near to exploiting the subject’s potential, and instead
of an illuminating insight into how sexual attitudes have changed over that decade, what
we get is a rather trivial story of marital infidelity and rupture, with some political
stuff seemingly tagged on as an afterthought. There are some moments of poignancy
in the film (and also some occasional flashes of comic brilliance), but these are rather
lost by the film’s unnecessarily elliptical narrative structure and uneven pace.
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Director:
Michel Spinosa
Starring: Clotilde Courau, Vincent Elbaz, Géraldine Pailhas, Karin Viard, Roschdy Zem Synopsis
Whilst on holiday in the Mediterranean in 1969, two friends Paul and Vincent meet and
fall in love with two young women, Eve and Alice. Soon after, Eve becomes pregnant
and she is forced to marry Paul, whilst Vincent marries another woman, Marie after Alice’s
disappearance. 10 years on, Eve is having an affair with Vincent and is ready
to separate from Paul, and Alice has re-appeared and is now an outspoken feminist after
having had an abortion.
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