Coming Of Age With Diane Kurys’ Diabolo Menthe.

Diane Kurys’ Diabolo Menthe, aka Peppermint Soda, is a hugely enjoyable work of Bildungsroman. Kurys’ film follows in the footsteps of Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows, in charting the story of a child on the verge of adulthood in post-WWII Paris, with its vivid portrayal of coming of age at once both instantly recognisable and romantically cinematic and otherworldly. As these things so often are, it’s a film of awakenings, both political and personal.

The film is anchored by a memorable performance from Odile Michel, whose Frederique is the youngest member of a broken home. We spend a year bookended by summer vacations with Frederique and her older sister, as they traverse the prides and pitfalls of young womanhood.

In a contemporary review from 1979 Janet Maslin noted that “Peppermint Soda has the form of a scrapbook”, with Kurys’ film structured episodically at random points throughout the year. We see the pair fall for boys and encounter the political upheavals that paved the way for Mai ’68, an area the director would look at in greater detail with her later work such as 1980’s Cocktail Molotov.

Diabolo Menthe sits comfortably within the comprehensive canon of French bildungsroman cinema, with Frederique as deserving of mention as Antoine Doinel, Zazie (of the Metro) and the Pialat crew. It’s available now from the BFI.