So much of the acclaimed French cinema forced down one’s throat in film school – as full of artistic merit as it may be – is just so excessively male. With the exception of the great Agnes Varda, so many of the great French filmmakers from the 1960s and 1970s that we see cited on best-of lists and class syllabi are made by men and tell men’s stories; the women involved tend to be presented as objects of the hero’s desire, hatred, or both, rather than as heroes themselves.
For these and many other reasons, the Cohen Film Collection’s 2K restoration of Peppermint Soda, now available on Blu-ray, is an absolutely refreshing delight. The debut feature from writer-director Diane Kurys, Peppermint Soda tells the semi-autobiographical tale of two Jewish sisters attending a strict school in Paris in the 1960s.
Released in 1977, it tackles everything from first love to political activism, from broken friendships to divorced parents – all through a female gaze. It’s a worthy sister to more well-known films like François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows, and one that deserves to be discovered by a whole new audience via this beautiful restoration.
Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Anne (Eléonore Klarwein) is 13. Her sister, Frederique (Odile Michel) is 15. The children of divorced parents, they’ve just returned to their mother’s home in Paris from a summer vacation spent on the beach with their father. The girls attend an exceedingly strict school, one where extra hours of work are doled out for arriving late, poor drawings are humiliated in front of the entire art class, and teachers aggressively remove students’ makeup until their faces are red from smeared lipstick and rising anger.
Anne is unmotivated, an underachiever who goes so far as to copy Frederique’s old essays for her own assignments. She eavesdrops on her sister and mother, jealous of their increasingly adult companionship and conversation, and rebels in small ways like skipping class to hang out in cafes and secretly wearing stockings against her mother’s wishes.
Frederique, on the other hand, is in the throes of awakenings both political and romantic. She demands that her teachers cover contemporary politics such as the war in Algeria and atomic proliferation and goes on a camping trip with her first boyfriend, realizing by the end that she wants to be rid of him. Together, two sisters bicker and comfort each other and attempt to figure out their own places in the rapidly changing world.
Reality Bites
Peppermint Soda is a slice-of-life film that will leave a bittersweet taste in your mouth – but it’s a taste you won’t mind when it lingers. The candy-colored hues of the costumes by designer Thérèse Ripaud and perfectly composed shots by cinematographer Philippe Rousselot look crisp and fresh in this new restoration. The two lead actresses – teenagers themselves at the time – are heartbreakingly authentic in their roles.
Eléonore Klarwein, all long gangly limbs and equally long hair, brings a deep sensitivity to Anne, rendering her a remarkable empathetic character to whom anyone who has ever experienced the awkward horror of being a teenager can relate. As older sister Frederique, Odile Michel comes off as more confident and easygoing in comparison, but that breezy attitude covers insecurities that arise in moments such as when one of her longtime friends abandons her over her newfound political beliefs.
Peppermint Soda is not a plot-driven film, but a moment-driven one. The film flits between various instances in Anne and Frederique’s lives both major and mundane, with one keeping in mind that the major and the mundane often switch places with each other as the years progress. There are the seemingly small things, such as Anne stealing her sister’s Tampax so that she can pretend in front of all of her classmates that she has already had her first period, to the obviously big ones, such as one of Frederique’s friends running away and dropping out of school. These moments are all filtered through a viewpoint that is undeniably female and all the more remarkable for it.
In one startlingly intense scene, a classmate of Frederique’s named Pascale (Corinne Dacla) recounts her memories of the riots outside her home when the police crushed a peaceful protest and the funerals for the dead protesters that followed. Yet the awkward silence that follows her story is shortly after punctuated by the bell signaling the end of class.
As her classmates immediately rush out, babbling away about anything else but the deeply personal story their classmate just shared, Pascale sits in dazed silence at her desk, too caught up in her own memories. It’s a moment that will go on to influence Frederique’s burgeoning political activism, and the weight of it feels all too real. Yet there are enough lighter moments in Peppermint Soda to keep the film and its female heroes afloat even as the waves of adulthood try to drag them down.
Peppermint Soda: Conclusion
A spiritual forerunner to modern coming-of-age films like Eighth Grade and Lady Bird, Peppermint Soda is a charming and poignant glimpse at two ordinary teenage girls dealing with all of the inherent messiness that comes with growing up a member of the so-called second sex.
What do you think? Does Peppermint Soda sound like a French classic worth seeking out? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Peppermint Soda was released on Blu-ray by the Cohen Film Collection on February 12, 2019.
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