To help her out of her funk, her daughters get her a trial membership to a senior centre where she has the option of picking up any number of new hobbies like acting, pottery or IT skills. But being as gorgeous as she is though her grumpily overworked husband may not notice, what she soon picks up is the très charmant Julien who teaches the computer class and a deliciously thrilling affair strikes up between the pair as she surrenders to hedonistic pleasures with a handsome lover 20 years or so her junior.
Based on Fanny Chesnel’s novel Une jeune fille aux cheveux blancs, Vernoux’s film is something rather lovely. The striking visual composition of the opening soon gives way for something more conventional but her camera fixes firmly on the sensational work that Ardant gives here. There’s a wonderful carelessness about Caroline’s affair, it isn’t overdramatised so that it ends up feeling much more natural, their interactions often as awkward as they are amorous, an everyday affair rather than one to remember.