Un peu de soleil dans l'eau froide

Un peu de soleil dans l'eau froide, internationally released as A Few Hours of Sunlight and A Little Sun in Cold Water, is a 1971 French film directed Jacques Deray adapted from the novel of Françoise Sagan.^[1] The title quotes the poet Paul Éluard.

Un peu de soleil dans l'eau froide
Directed by	Jacques Deray
Written by	Jacques Deray Jean-Claude Carrière
Produced by	Gérard Beytout René Pignières
Starring	Claudine Auger Marc Porel Judith Magre Nadine Alari André Falcon Barbara Bach Bernard Fresson
Cinematography	Jean Badal
Edited by	Henri Lanoë
Music by	Michel Legrand
Distributed by	SNC
Release date	1971 (1971)
Running time	110 minutes
Country	France
Language	French

Synopsis

In Limoges, Nathalie Silvener, a married woman falls for Gilles, a depressed and brilliant Parisian journalist, himself in a relationship with a model.

Casting

• Claudine Auger : Nathalie Silvener
• Marc Porel : Gilles Lantier
• Judith Magre : Odile
• Nadine Alari : Gilda
• André Falcon : Florent
• Barbara Bach : Héloïse / Elvire
• Bernard Fresson : Jean
• Jean-Claude Carrière : François
• Gérard Depardieu : Pierre
• Marc Eyraud : Monsieur Rouargue
• Jacques Debary : Fairmont
• Guido Mannari : Thomas
• Mireille Perrey

Reception

According to Cahiers du cinéma, the film is one of the most personal works of Deray.^[2] Le Nouvel Observateur referred to it as "un petit film démodé comme le petit roman de Sagan" (i.e., "a little film which is old-fashioned in the same way the little novel by Sagan is").^[3] Time Out was very critical, calling it "fatuous" and saying "Porel gives one of the most boring, suburban, asexual performances imaginable".^[4] DVD Talk called it "dated and dull".^[5]

The novel

It is based on a 1969 book by Françoise Sagan. BSCNews calls it "a superb novel", praising Sagan's "simple and poetic" style.^[6]