Year: 1983
Runtime: 110 mins
Language: French
Director: Diane Kurys
In occupied France of 1942, a Jewish refugee marries a soldier to avoid deportation, while a wealthy art student loses her first husband to a stray Resistance bullet. After the Liberation she meets an actor, becomes pregnant and marries him. By 1952, Lena and Madeleine, now mothers, meet at their children’s school in Lyon, and the intensity of their bond begins to threaten both of their marriages.
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Read the complete plot breakdown of Entre Nous (1983), including all key story events, major twists, and the ending explained in detail. Discover what really happened—and what it all means.
In France during 1942, a young Jewish woman named Léna Isabelle Huppert Weber finds herself detained by Vichy authorities and facing deportation to Nazi Germany. A guard named Michel Guy Marchand Korski offers to save her by marrying her. They escape on foot over the Alps to Italy. After the war, they settle in Lyon, where Léna has two daughters with him. At a school event, she meets another mother, Madeleine Miou-Miou, who is married with one son. The two women become close friends, and their husbands also get along, although both men secretly feel jealous of the bond their wives share.
Madeleine has a brief affair with her former art teacher, for which Léna lends her flat. Unfortunately, Michel comes home at lunchtime and discovers the guilty couple. This turns him against Madeleine and strains Léna’s friendship with her. The two women had been planning to open a dress shop, and Michel offers to finance it on the condition that Madeleine is excluded, as she has gone off to Paris. Taking a night train to visit her, Léna has a sexual encounter with a soldier, her first experience apart from Michel, which she finds very enjoyable. In Paris, the two women dance, get drunk in a nightclub, and end up in bed together.
However, Léna fails to realise the fragility of Madeleine, who is eventually placed in a mental hospital and later released to the care of her parents. When Léna visits her, she takes Madeleine out to show her the new dress shop. Unfortunately, Michel drops by and upon seeing Madeleine there, he smashes the place up. Léna takes Madeleine and their children away to a rented house by the sea, where Michel tries to reconcile with her but without success. The end caption reveals that Léna never sees her husband again, and Madeleine dies two years later.
Last Updated: November 22, 2025 at 16:00
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