I first heard of À Nos Amours as a Criterion film; later I saw Time Out rank it pretty high in its top 100 French films of all time, which made me more curious to see it. Winner of the Cesar Award in 1983, À Nos Amours centres around Suzanne, a French girl of 15 (when we first meet her) who breaks up with a boyfriend she likes after unthinkingly cheating on him. As life at home grows more unstable, she becomes increasingly promiscuous and is seemingly unable to love anyone. Her father, who she adored, abandoned the family, her mother is hysterical and her brother has become the tyrannical head of the household. After a few years she marries a man who she doesn't love but who brings her peace, believing it's too late to go back to her first boyfriend.
To a degree, À Nos Amours explores the relationship between her promiscuity and her crumbling domestic life; her brother beats her for her affairs. There are incestuous overtones, as Suzanne asks him if he's jealous and later, he keeps going on and on about how she smells (!). But she also started sleeping around before her father split. To a degree, À Nos Amours is just a teen drama about her remorse of dumping her old boyfriend. That's less interesting, but not bad.
There's definite erotic value in the film as well- particularly when her mother finds her sleeping naked (she's alone). We see only her back and a side of her breast, but it may be the sexiest part of the movie (where we often see more). Her mother scolds her as disgusting, and you want to defend her (the only reason her mother can call it disgusting is that it's "just not done," but it is done). Still, À Nos Amours is mainly a drama and mostly succeeds there.
To a degree, À Nos Amours explores the relationship between her promiscuity and her crumbling domestic life; her brother beats her for her affairs. There are incestuous overtones, as Suzanne asks him if he's jealous and later, he keeps going on and on about how she smells (!). But she also started sleeping around before her father split. To a degree, À Nos Amours is just a teen drama about her remorse of dumping her old boyfriend. That's less interesting, but not bad.
There's definite erotic value in the film as well- particularly when her mother finds her sleeping naked (she's alone). We see only her back and a side of her breast, but it may be the sexiest part of the movie (where we often see more). Her mother scolds her as disgusting, and you want to defend her (the only reason her mother can call it disgusting is that it's "just not done," but it is done). Still, À Nos Amours is mainly a drama and mostly succeeds there.