''Lumière'' () is a French

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film written and directed by

Jeanne Moreau Jeanne Moreau (; 23 January 1928 – 31 July 2017) was a French actress, singer, screenwriter, director, and socialite. She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française. Mo ...

. The semi-autobiographical film is about the friendship between four actresses. It is credited as being one of the first films to focus on female friendship.

Plot

Sarah is an actress who is nearing 40. She invites Laura, her best friend of the past sixteen years, along with two other women, Caroline and Julienne, to a vacation retreat in

Provence Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...

. Each woman is at a critical point in her life; Sarah has broken up with her longtime partner, while Laura is pregnant but her husband is carrying on an affair with another woman. Caroline is in an unhappy relationship, and Julienne is being pursued by an American actor.

Cast

Release

''Lumière'' was screened as one of the three French films at the 1976 Toronto International Film Festival. Following screening, the film was released by the

New World Pictures New World Pictures (also known as New World Entertainment, New World Communications Group, Inc., and New World International) was an American independent production, distribution, and (in its final years as an autonomous entity) multimedia com ...

. On 16 March 2023,

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of art film, arth ...

screened ''Lumière'', '' The Adolescent'' and ''Lillian Gish'' at the

Film Forum The Film Forum is a nonprofit movie theater at 209 West Houston Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. It is a four-screen cinema open 365 days a year, with up to 250,000 annual admissions, nearly 500 seats, 60 employees, over ...

. In 2023, Carlotta Films sold the distribution rights to Japan, who released ''Lumière'', ''The Adolescent'' and ''Lillian Gish'' under an umbrella name ''Jeanne Moreau, Filmmaker''. In 2024, ''Jeanne Moreau, Filmmaker'' was released on Blu-ray.

Reception

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website

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, ''Lumière'' has an approval rating of 60% based on 5 reviews. ''Lumière'' received critical acclaim. Critic

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

wrote positively of the film, commenting "as the strands of oreau'sstory become clear and we begin to know the characters, the movie grows into a simple and strong emotional statement." In a retrospective review,

Richard Brody Richard Brody (born January 22, 1958) is an American film critic, filmmaker and author. Background Brody grew up in Roslyn, New York. He is Jewish and has personally identified as an atheist. Brody attended Princeton University, receiving a B ...

of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' wrote,

Working with the cinematographer Ricardo Aronovich, oreaudevelops a gliding, peering, shifting aesthetic to match the glossy surfaces with which she conveys shuddering depths of feeling. The camera roves around the actors, capturing the agitation within their controlled gestures, suggesting the elegance of leisure and luxury within which high adventures of passion, pleasure, and power—of self-creation and self-definition—play out.

Accolades

References

External links

*
Lumière
' at

BFI The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, d ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lumiere French romantic drama films 1976 romantic drama films Films directed by Jeanne Moreau Films set in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur 1970s female buddy films Films about actors French female buddy films 1970s French films Films scored by Astor Piazzolla Semi-autobiographical films