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Anchored by a superb performance from the veteran French New Wave actress Bernadette Lafont (The Mother and the Whore), Les Petites Vacances is an absorbing road movie from debut writer/director Olivier Peyon. Lafont plays a sixtysomething ex-teacher, Danielle, who takes her two grandchildren Marine and Thomas (Adele Csech and Lucas Franchi) on an impromptu summer holidays trip to Haute-Savoie region, but is mysteriously reluctant to tell the kids' divorced parents of her itinerary.

From the opening shot - a car following a logging truck in the rain around a winding alpine road - an air of unease hovers over Les Petites Vacances, despite the often picturesque locations. As the film progresses, and we journey higher up the mountains, Danielle's behaviour becomes increasingly unpredictable: she faints, throws her mobile phone into a lake, and batters a ferret to death with a broom. By the time she meets her son in a village, she's threatening to kill herself if she's separated from the grandchildren.

"TOUCHING SCENES"

Contemporary cinema doesn't usually pay too much attention to women of Danielle's age, preferring to concentrate on younger, more beautiful types. Les Petites Vacances however, places this character centre stage and delves beneath her practical-minded facade, revealing an emotionally fragile individual scared that she no longer has a purpose in life. Look out too for a lovely scene, where Lafont dances in a near-empty hotel ballroom with an affable Claude Brasseur, another former New Wave star.

In French with English subtitles.

Les Petite Vacances is released in UK cinemas on Friday 29th June 2007.