Bright Days Ahead, film review: Engaging comedy shows there's life after retirement

(15) Marion Vernoux, 94 mins Starring: Fanny Ardant, Laurent Lafitte

'Bright Days Ahead' deals frankly with the erotic side of the couple's relationship

This engaging French comedy has Fanny Ardant in Mrs Robinson mode as an improbably glamorous retired dentist who has an affair with a younger man.

Caroline (Ardant) is a grandmother trying to adjust to the computer age who spends most of her spare time at a "seniors' club". Julien (Laurent Lafitte) is a handsome computer teacher, "dangerously close to 40".

Vernoux keeps matters light. She deals frankly with the erotic side of the couple's relationship but also includes scenes of characters eating, drinking fine wine and philosophising.

Ardant's character may be a former dentist but that doesn't stop her talking about Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex when she is not reminiscing about her old days spent filling in cavities.