Peppermint Soda

Autumn 1963, Paris. Anne is thirteen and starting school. Her sister Frédérique is fifteen and far ahead of her; she smokes, takes an interest in politics and talks about serious things with her friends. Anne is part of none of it. Their parents are separated; the summers are spent with the father and the rest with the mother. The film follows one school year: lessons, teachers, friendships, a first period, a first cigarette, a first lie and the tension at home. There is no great event. Diane Kurys writes and directs. Éléonore Klarwein plays Anne and Odile Michel plays Frédérique. It is Kurys's first feature. The narrative rests on the director's own childhood and the film is dedicated to her sister. The period stands in the background; the end of the war in Algeria and the political climate in France seep into the students' talk. The school scenes are built in detail: the rules on dress, the methods of punishment and the bearing of the teachers show the educational order of the period directly. The narrative does not prettify childhood; the mother does not listen to her daughters, the teachers are unfair and the friendships are fragile. The film was an unexpected commercial success in France and made Kurys's career. Its limit is structure; the narrative is made of sections and goes in no dramatic direction. Who it is for: viewers who like French youth films and observational narratives. Who it is not for: there is no plot, the pace is scattered, and the film ties itself to no conclusion.