10 April 2012
No matter how many movies have told tales of a pretty outsider threatening a marriage, Stéphane Brizé's film manages to be distinctive. It is beautifully shot in provincial France, pays great attention to the minutiae of village life and is acted out with real sexual tension.
The Mademoiselle of the title (Sandrine Kiberlain) is a pretty schoolteacher who plays the violin. She attracts the attentions of a married mason (Vincent Lindon), a local man who seems unlikely ever to leave his wife (Aure Atika), despite his smouldering feelings.
It is Brief Encounter all over again - an impossible romance that is expressed delicately and without recourse to more than mild erotica.
Mademoiselle Chambon
Cert: 12A
