THE GOOD DAYS (aka BRIGHT DAYS AHEAD) is another French film about that most French of genres: the well-mannered, middle-class affair. In this case she's a recently retired dentist in a coastal town, who goes to a club for retirees where she takes a computer class because she's fed up of not understanding the machines, only to fall in love with the much younger teacher, who it turns out used to visit the dentists just to watch her. Inevitably it's doomed: her husband finds out and it turns out that her new lover isn't exclusive in his affections. It's a well made and well observed drama with an excellent cast but it isn't anything that anyone who enjoys French films won't have seen before, done better.

(37%) A typically French drama looking at an adulterous relationship between a recently retired dentist and her quite a lot younger computer teacher boyfriend. There's plenty of French realism here that's sort of like what a TV soap opera would be like if they were not so poorly made. While the plot is hugely simplistic to the point in which this could have been a 30 minute short and still had the exact same sort of impact. But the performances are decent enough, and there's not a huge amount of romantic movies out there about people in and out of love at the later stages of life. Maybe worth a look for French cinema fans, but I'm certainly never going to watch it again.

This fine film is yet another case of Translator Talentless; the original French title is clear and unambiguous, Les Beaux Jours, literally The Good Days; nowhere is there any mention of the future, in fact if anything the title implies Golden Days in the past yet the translators have seen fit to render it Bright Days Ahead. Heigh Ho. Marion Vernoux is one of literally dozens of outstanding French female directors and her Rien a faire is one of the finest French films of recent years. In some ways there are echoes of Rien a faire here, both chronicle love affairs doomed to disaster, in Rien a faire the gulf was one of Class whilst in Les Beaux Jours the gulf is one of age. There are differences of course, and when I was lucky enough to meet Marion Vernoux at the London screening last night I made the point that Valerie Bruni Tedeschi (the star of Rien a faire) exudes vulnerability in heartbreaking quantities, Fanny Ardant (star of Les Beaux Jours) is much stronger emotionally. Patrick Chesnais is excellent as Ardant's husband and an ensemble cast complement the principals to a tee. A fine movie and one I will watch again and buy on DVD.

This little French comedy "Bright Days Ahead" stars Fanny Ardant as a recently retired dentist, who, still under the shock of her best friends's death, discovers new life paths when her daughters send her to "Les beaux jours", an institution where a great number of retirees spends their hours sewing, playing table tennis or taking computer lessons. At these lessons, she meets Julien, a teacher and more than 20 years her junior, with whom she soon enters a passionate relationship that turns her dull retirement life upside down. Complications arise as she's been married for decades and Julien isn't a man for one woman either.It's a very French film, with lots of situation comedy from start to finish and if I'll watch it again at some point, I'll probably discover a lot more subtle nuances I oversaw the first time. Quite a hoot actually. It's very well written and never really drags. Real drama moments are rather rare, but executed properly as well, so taking everything into consideration this is definitely more of a feel-good comedy elevated by the script, Ardant's acting and a sweet ending where we see her taken and led by her husband's hand as opposed to several scenes earlier where her lover takes her by the hand to go places. It also has a couple memorable shots that show Marie Vernoux's talent, such as their first encounter in the car with the windshield separating us and everybody else in the world from their intimacy or the scene where Ardant's characters sits on a bench and we see Lafitte's leave on the right and, at the same time, one of her daughters entering the picture on the left.In contrast to her character, Fanny Ardant, well into her 60s by now, proves in this film why she is hopefully still far away from retirement. She delivers a quietly convincing performance of a character who simply isn't over the top and wouldn't have justified such an approach. There's nothing absolutely outstanding about this film, the script maybe coming the closest to such a description, but it's an entertaining 100 minutes with some decent French music that will probably go a lot more under the radar than they should.