Cousin Cousine - Reception

Reception

Upon its theatrical release, Cousin Cousine received mostly positive reviews, both in Europe and the United States, where it became a surprising hit. The film was the 35th highest grossing film of the year in France with 1,161,394 cinema admissions. In his review in the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half stars out of four, writing:

Cousin Cousine tells the story of an impossible love affair, and the two people who make it gloriously possible. That would be enough in itself—blind faith in romance is so rare these days—but for some lucky reason the movie gives us more. It gives us, first of all, one of the most engaging and likable couples in recent movies. It gives us a feeling of a real human milieu, of the families these people belong in. ... They dance, they tell each other little things about themselves and a sudden, healthy, sensual affection is born. ... There is no doubt at all, of course, that they're in love. But they don't sleep together for quite a long time, partly because what they have is so unexpected and precious that they want to savor it.

In his review in The New York Times, Vincent Canby called the film "an exceptionally winning, wittily detailed comedy that is as much about family relationships as it is about love." Canby goes on the write:

In a rather startling way, no one seems to get seriously hurt in this film, even though there are deaths and profound disappointments, not because Mr. Tacchella takes a superficially rosy view of things, but because, with the help of his actors, he creates a group of characters who appear either to have inner resources or, like Karine, to be too self-absorbed to feel anything too deeply. Miss Barrault, who is the niece of Jean-Louis; Miss Pisier, Mr. Lanoux and Mr. Marchand are very good company, especially when they are misbehaving. Cousin, Cousine possesses a heart that is both light and generous.