Past secrets irrevocably impact present relationships in Julie Lopes-Curval’s moving and graceful drama. Audrey (Marina Hands) returns to France to visit her aging parents at a critical juncture in her life. Her fraught relationship with her mother (Catherine Deneuve at her chilly best) leads Audrey to move into the abandoned house of her grandfather. There, she discovers a book of recipes and journal entries written by her grandmother, notes that reflect the circumscribed life of a married woman in a small town during the 1950s. As Audrey delves deeper, she comes to a greater understanding of her grandmother’s predicament, her mother’s anger and feelings of betrayal and her own life choices. With terrific performances and a keen eye for visual detail, including flashbacks based on Audrey’s reading of the diary, the film gradually, and with increasing emotional resonance, uncovers the layers of its three complex and conflicted female protagonists.


Written by Julie Lopes-Curval, Sophie Hiet. Photographed by Philippe Guilbert. With Catherine Deneuve, Marina Hands, Marie-Josée Croze, Michel Duchaussoy (105 min, BAC Films).