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Life Is a Long Quiet River

1988 · 90 min

A wry, lively satire that contrasts two families with warmth and bite, making you laugh while pondering class and chance.

Directed by
Étienne Chatiliez
Genres
Comedy
Starring
Benoît Magimel, Valérie Lalande, Catherine Hiegel
Tagline
Those Two families should never have met
Overview
Two babies are switched at birth. When the mistake is discovered 12 years later, it leads to complications in the lives of both families. One family is affluent, with dutiful and (apparently) contented children. The other family is poor, with rambunctious (even delinquent) children, often hungry, but with lots of laughter in the house.

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Stream in the UK
  • Amazon Prime Video
More options Data from JustWatch
Directed by
Étienne Chatiliez
Genres
Comedy
Starring
Benoît Magimel, Valérie Lalande, Catherine Hiegel
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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • satiricalstrength 3 of 3
  • lightstrength 2 of 3
  • cynicalstrength 2 of 3
  • warmstrength 1 of 3
Pacing
brisk, 3 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
easy-watch, 2 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • class
  • family
  • identity
  • betrayal
  • parenthood
Places
  • small town
  • home
Era
contemporary
Audience
teen
Form
  • ensemble
Content intensity
  • Gore none
  • Language mild
  • Violence mild
  • Sex mild
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action2
Horror0
Humour7
Realism7
Romance2
Tension3
Darkness4
Complexity5
Emotional weight5

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Where to watch in the UK

Stream
  • Amazon Prime Video
Rent or buy
  • Apple TV Store
  • Amazon Video
  • YouTube

Streaming data from JustWatch.All options on TMDB

Details

Genres
comedy
Directed by
Étienne Chatiliez
Written by
Florence Quentin, Étienne Chatiliez
Starring
Benoît Magimel, Valérie Lalande, Catherine Hiegel, Daniel Gélin, Hélène Vincent, André Wilms, Christine Pignet, Maurice Mons
Music
Gérard Kawczynski
Cinematography
Pascal Lebègue
Runtime
90 min
Country
France
Languages
French

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