larryhiker I watched and did a summary of Bright Days Ahead about three years ago and recently was searching comments for other reasons. It was exciting to see people who note the title and translation, i check them all too. For Les beaux jours, i had a slightly different opinion of the title and maybe more. Most of the time the French, Italian, ... films end up with some significant action near the end. They leave you thinking. So i always watch the end closely. The risk is sometimes you see what you want to see, not always the real meaning. Myself, is i see you and i running into the ocean and having fun as "Bright Days Ahead", and that title is an accurate real meaning of the movie.Perhaps the French might be happy with "De brillants jours à venir", from google translate. My point is the people that pick the titles, in all the languages, may be most interested in what font will go on the poster well and what will sell the most tickets. For me the title Bright Days Ahead is right on!Larry!

fifo35 The french like to depict in most of their films. their favorite lifestyle which is usually middle to upper class. Sitting around a table drinking wine, eating food and pondering about politics and relationships. A bit later we will see some passionate sex and the story start to unfold, if the characters are on their 20's it has political overtones, if the characters are in their mid 30's it is about the coming of age, in this film is about the taboo of having an affair with a much younger partner and the predicament it accompanies such a decision.Nicely photographed, uplifting location near the sea can not to save this clichéd and bland film.It seems to me that a lot of french films suffer from trying to RE-invent love, which is fine but it becomes to be predictable and boring.

terraplane I saw this during a French film festival in London. Both Fanny Ardant and Marion Vernoux were in attendance for a Q&A session afterwards.The basic story is of an older woman in Calais having a brief affair with a younger man after retiring from her job as a dentist and re-discovering the sexual spark missing from her long marriage, before seeing the error of her ways. All this is set in motion because her daughters buy her a membership package to a kind of club for retired people. And therein lies the first of several problems. I cannot believe that a woman with such apparent vitality as the erstwhile Caroline would, even for a moment, consider joining a club for people who have nothing else to do. I also cannot believe that anyone - and especially daughters - would buy such a risible gift in the first place. Maybe it's a French thing.Caroline then spends much time either in the company of a bunch of ageing nonentities, who seem to enjoy the idea of hurtling towards eternity via the purgatory of a seniors club, or in the lustful embrace of a younger bloke and his energetic tumescence, while her husband - who still works as a dentist and therefore has a rewarding, if somewhat boring life - appears to have all the charisma of a stunned hamster. But at least he's not filling other women's cavities while his wife is playing the lusty pink oboe instead of playing bingo in the afternoon. The story takes the usual turns and follows most of the usual clichés about such affairs until the film ends with another unlikely scenario. We all get old, we all need something to live for and we all need a bit of a spark in our relationships, but do we need yet another fairly uninteresting film to remind us of our mortality and apparent fragility when time starts to accelerate us ever faster towards our ultimate - and unavoidable - oblivion?Not really.The film is nicely photographed but ultimately it fails to engage on any level. The story is thin, the characters are not really developed beyond the cliché level and the script doesn't give the actors much to work with.After the screening Fanny Ardant gave s few fairly unilluminating comments in reply to some hideously embarrassing questions from a bloke who thought that asking her whether she changed the sound of her voice for the film was an example of an interesting question.Fanny's reply was "I was acting".

Piccinina I'm a longtime fan of Ardant from way back when I first saw her in a French TV "feuilleton" (Les Dames de la Cote). I wish she'd had a better script here. There were too many clichés and stereotypes. For me the story felt as flat as her hair color. Perhaps the bad blonde was meant to age her. She's much better and sexier as a brunette. In my opinion the best performance was by Patrick Chesnais as her husband. He was pitch perfect. There was a lot of potential for a more interesting film and it failed. But then again I haven't read the source material (book) so perhaps there just wasn't enough there to begin with. I'm glad that I saw it, but was disappointed despite the fact that it's always good to see Fanny.