Cousin Cousine

Plot

Two cousins related by marriage, Marthe and Ludovic, meet at a family wedding for the first time. Marthe is the bride's daughter, and Ludovic is the groom's nephew. After a raucous wedding reception with plenty of dancing and drinking, Marthe and Ludovic are left waiting for their respective spouses, Pascal and Karine, who are off having sex. While they wait, they get to know each other: Marthe is a secretary, and Ludovic is a dance instructor who changes his occupation every three years. They later dance together. Eventually, Pascal and Karine show up, slightly disheveled, and the couples part.

Ludovic meets Marthe for lunch and tells her that her husband is having an affair with his wife. Later, Pascal informs her that he has broken off all of his affairs and that, from now on, she will be the only one. When Marthe tells him she knows about Karine, he says he only had her "three times in the bushes".

Some time later at a family gathering at Marthe's mother's house, Ludovic's teenage daughter, Nelsa, shows slides she took at the wedding—including compromising photos of Pascal and Karine. During the slideshow, Marthe's mother's new husband dies. At the funeral, Ludovic's father arrives and extends his condolences; he too lost his spouse recently. On the way back from the cemetery, Marthe and Ludovic become better acquainted, with Marthe revealing that she enjoys swimming and singing.

Later that week, Marthe and Ludovic meet for lunch, buy bathing suits, and go swimming in a public pool. They enjoy each other's company so much that they decide to take the rest of the day off together to go shopping and see a film. Although their relationship is platonic, Pascal and Karine begin to grow jealous. Marthe and Ludovic playfully arrange to meet by chance at a restaurant with their respective families, to see how Pascal and Karine react. Later that week, Marthe and Ludovic meet again at the swimming pool and acknowledge that their relationship is special and must remain that way, even if platonic.

At another family wedding, with Pascal and the groom's father fighting over a business deal gone wrong, Marthe and Ludovic decide to leave and spend the day together. They return to find a drunken Pascal harassing the guests, and soon they all leave the disastrous wedding and bring Pascal home. Marthe's mother and Ludovic's father develop a close friendship and plan to spend time at his vineyard. Marthe and Ludovic discuss their own relationship and decide that it is absurd to keep it platonic. For once, they will do something for themselves, and not for their spouses and families.

That Saturday, Marthe and Ludovic meet and spend the day together having sex. The following morning, they extend their stay another day, having sex, exchanging recipes, and bathing together.

In the coming days, Pascal reverts to his philandering ways, Karine leaves Ludovic and then returns, and Marthe's mother and Ludovic's father discover they are not as compatible as they thought. Marthe and Ludovic's relationship, however, continues to grow. At a Christmas family gathering at Marthe's mother's house, Marthe and Ludovic lock themselves in a bedroom and have sex throughout the evening while their families eat, drink, watch Midnight Mass, and exchange gifts. The couple finally emerges from the bedroom, says goodbye to their families, and rides off into the night together.

Cast

• Marie-Christine Barrault as Marthe
• Victor Lanoux as Ludovic
• Marie-France Pisier as Karine
• Guy Marchand as Pascal
• Ginette Garcin as Biju, Marthe and Diane's mother
• Sybil Maas as Diane, Marthe's sister
• Popeck (credited as Jean Herbert) as Sacy, Diane's husband
• Pierre Plessis as Gobert, Ludovic's uncle
• Catherine Verlor as Nelsa, Ludovic's daughter
• as Thomas, Ludovic's father
• Catherine Stermann as Monique, one of Pascal's lovers

Reception

Box office

Cousin Cousine was the 35th highest-grossing film of 1975 in France, with 1,161,394 cinema admissions. At the Paris Theater in Manhattan, the film broke the attendance records set 10 years earlier by A Man and a Woman.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Cousin Cousine holds an approval rating of 100% based on five reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10.

In his review in the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, writing:

In his review in The New York Times, Vincent Canby called the film "an exceptionally winning, wittily detailed comedy that is as much about family relationships as it is about love." Canby goes on to write:

Accolades

• 1975 Louis Delluc Prize (Jean-Charles Tacchella) Won
• 1976 César Award for Best Supporting Actress (Marie-France Pisier) Won
• 1976 César Award Nomination for Best Actor (Victor Lanoux)
• 1976 César Award Nomination for Best Film (Jean-Charles Tacchella)
• 1976 César Award Nomination for Best Screenplay, Dialogue or Adaptation (Jean-Charles Tacchella)
• 1976 San Sebastián International Film Festival Silver Seashell Award (Jean-Charles Tacchella) Won
• 1976 National Board of Review Award for Top Five Foreign Films Won
• 1977 Academy Award Nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Marie-Christine Barrault)
• 1977 Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film
• 1977 Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Screenplay (Jean-Charles Tacchella, Danièle Thompson)
• 1977 Golden Globe Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film
• 1978 Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Film Won

References

References

1. "Cousin cousine (1975)".
2. "Cousin cousine (1975) – Infos Cles Allemagne".
3. (21 March 1996). "Dubbing". [[Chicago Tribune]].
4. Donahue, Suzanne Mary. (1987). "American Film Distribution: The Changing Marketplace". [[UMI Research Press]].
5. "Cousin cousine (1975) – Résultats France".
6. Klemesrud, Judy. (27 October 1976). "U.S. Love Affair With 'Cousine'". [[The New York Times]].
7. "Cousin, Cousine".
8. Ebert, Roger. (28 October 1976). "Cousin Cousine". [[Chicago Sun-Times]].
9. Canby, Vincent. (July 26, 1976). "Screen: A Winning 'Cousin, Cousine'". [[The New York Times]].
10. "The 49th Academy Awards (1977) Nominees and Winners". The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.