Back to trending
Tender Cousins

Tender Cousins

Drama · Romance · 1980

Teenage Julien loves his teenage cousin Julia among flowers in summer of '39 France.

Movie details

Tender Cousins

1980 Drama · Romance 1h 32m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

5.8 / 10

Community rating

Teenage Julien loves his teenage cousin Julia among flowers in summer of '39 France.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Tender Cousins?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

One Wild Moment

One Wild Moment

Drama · 2015

Antoine and Laurent, old friends, spend their vacation in Corsica with their respective daughters: seventeen-year-old Louna and eighteen-year-old Marie. One evening at the beach, Louna seduces Laurent. Louna is in love, but for Laurent it was nothing more than a momentary distraction. Without revealing her lover's name, Louna confides in her father, who tries by any means to discover who his daughter's lover is. How long will the secret be able to be kept hidden?

Down by Love

Down by Love

Drama · 2016

A man, a woman. A prison director, his inmate. An impossible love, a true story.

Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno

Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno

Romance · 2018

Amin, an aspiring screenwriter living in Paris, returns home for the summer, in Sète, South of France. It is a time of reconnecting with his family and his childhood friends. Together with his cousin Tony and his best friend Ophélie, he spends his time between the Tunisian restaurant run by his parents, the local bars and the beaches frequented by girls on holiday.

Thieves

Thieves

Romance · 1996

In the middle of the night, someone brings Ivan's body home to his wife and his young son. Flashbacks reveal the relationships among Ivan and his brother Alex, a cop with a cleanliness fetish; siblings Juliette and Jimmy, Ivan's partners in a seedy nightclub; the love triangle of Alex, Juliette, and Marie, a professor of philosophy; and of Alex and his nephew, Ivan's dour, stoic son. Ivan's death changes every relationship.

Bonjour Tristesse

Bonjour Tristesse

Drama · 1958

A spoiled teenager spends the summer at the French Riviera with her rich, widower, playboy father, but when his old flame resurfaces, she resolves to keep her frivolous lifestyle at all costs.

All of You

All of You

Romance · 2025

Laura and Simon have been best friends since college. Over the years, they've realized their bond is more than platonic. Can they—and should they—risk everything to explore a love that has existed all along?

Fire with Fire

Fire with Fire

Drama · 1986

A tough, street-smart kid serving a sentence in a state youth reformatory meets a beautiful, innocent girl studying at a nearby convent. When forbidden love blossoms between them, they must fight the prison authorities, their parents and the law.

According to Greta

According to Greta

Drama · 2009

Dumped on her grandparents for the summer by her indifferent mother, acerbic and self-destructive teenager Greta disrupts the elderly couple's staid life on the Jersey Shore. Eventually, a romance helps Greta face down her demons.

See You Soon

See You Soon

Romance · 2019

A U.S. soccer star suffers a career-threatening injury in the run-up to the World Cup, and during his recovery, embarks on an epic romance with a Russian single mom.

Newness

Newness

Romance · 2017

In contemporary Los Angeles, two millennials navigating a social media–driven hookup culture begin a relationship that pushes both emotional and physical boundaries.

Where it lives

Watch in your region.

Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.

Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

David Hamilton

Written by

Pascal Lainé · Josiane Lévêque

Anja Schüte

Anja Schüte

Julia

Valérie Dumas

Valérie Dumas

Poune

Thierry Tevini

Thierry Tevini

Julien

Évelyne Dandry

Évelyne Dandry

Tante Adèle

Elisa Servier

Elisa Servier

Claire

Macha Méril

Macha Méril

Mère de Julien

Pierre Vernier

Pierre Vernier

Père de Julien

Court is in session

Put Tender Cousins on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.