The genius of La Vie Est Un Long Fleuve Tranquille lies in how it refuses to choose a side. Chatiliez could have easily made a film where the poor are noble and the rich are evil, or vice versa. Instead, he portrays both extremes as fundamentally flawed.
The two families would never have interacted if not for a vengeful act of heartbreak. The plot's catalyst is (Catherine Hiegel), a nurse who has been the secret mistress of the clinic's obstetrician, the cynical Dr. Mavial (Daniel Gélin), for twelve years. On a lonely Christmas Eve twelve years before the film's main events, Dr. Mavial delivered two babies—a boy to the Le Quesnoy family and a girl to the Groseilles—and then coldly left Josette to go home to his wife. In a moment of bitter rage and despair, Josette swapped the two infants in their cribs. La Vie Est Un Long Fleuve Tranquille 1988 Ok.ru