A subtle melodrama beautifully acted by two leads, Sandrine Kiberlain and Vincent Lindon. Kiberlain plays a new teacher in a small town and Lindon plays a father of one of her pupils and local contractor. The story doesn't really make a conventional case for the attraction between the two. It's not their class differences, however slight, that attract. Lindon's Jean is not unhappily married and his wife is expecting another baby. Is it his dissatisfaction of everyday life or Mlle Chambon's loneliness? Are they willing to give up whatever they have for a fuck? Fortunately, Mlle Chambon stays classy and discrete and thankfully, mature. Kiberlain's characterization of a wandering teacher is very slight but just enough to make her all too human. It gets me to see in a drama where a grown man and woman cry silently in each other's presence. Brief Encounter in a smaller scale, Chambon is a great mature romance.
