7 episodes, tracking seven stages in the love life of the average Frenchwoman in the 1960s, each with a different director, writer, cast, etc. Episodes 1 ("L'Enfance") & 7 ("La Femme Seule") are amusing if slight (7 benefits from the quirky, unique Silvia Monfort). Episodes 2 ("L'' Adolescence") & 6 ("Le Divorce") are fast, inventive, free-form, playful (they play with the film medium itself & are prone to flights of fancy). Episode 5 ("L'Adultère") is a sophisticated take on adultery. Episode 3 ("La Virginité") is wonderfully tender and intimate - like watching real people. It could only have been written by a woman....and what do you know, it was. Episode 4 ("Le Mariage") is the best of all: set almost entirely in a train compartment, it is hilarious, insightful, with a brilliantly choreographed silent sequence. My order of the 7 segments from favorite to least would be: 4 > 3 > 5 > 2 > 6 > 7 > 1. But none of them are bad, and at least five of them are very good indeed. There is also witty animation throughout. *** out of 4.
Review of Love and the Frenchwoman
