General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

La Boum 2

La Boum 2 is a 1982 French comedy-drama directed by Claude Pinoteau and written by Pinoteau with Danièle Thompson. It is the sequel to La Boum (1980) and continues the story of Vic Berreton, the teenager played by Sophie Marceau, as she enters the lycée and navigates a new love life while her parents' marriage comes under strain.¹

Key fact	Detail
French release	8 December 1982; CNC visa of exploitation no. 54579 dated 7 December 1982, classification "Tous publics"¹^•²
Director and writers	Claude Pinoteau (director and co-screenwriter), Danièle Thompson (co-screenwriter and dialogue writer)¹
Principal cast	Sophie Marceau (Vic), Pierre Cosso (Philippe), Claude Brasseur (the father), Brigitte Fossey (the mother), Denise Grey (Poupette, the great-great-grandmother)³
Box office	4,071,585 admissions in France, 6th place among all films released in 1982, behind E.T. l'extraterrestre, L'As des As, Deux heures moins le quart avant Jésus-Christ, Le Gendarme et les gendarmettes, and La Balance¹
Award	César for Most Promising Actress (Meilleur espoir féminin) to Sophie Marceau at the 1983 ceremony; the film also received nominations for Best Music (Vladimir Cosma) and Best Supporting Actress (Denise Grey)⁴^•¹
Music	Vladimir Cosma, with Renaud Séchan also credited; cinematography by Edmond Séchan⁵
Production	Gaumont, production Société des films Marcel Dassault; filmed at Billancourt³

Spoilers

Plot

Vic returns from a holiday in Austria and enters the lycée Henri-IV. During a rock concert she falls in love with Philippe, a student a few years older who practices boxe française; in some accounts the two first exchange passports by mistake on the train home.¹^•⁶ Her heart is pulled between Philippe, the older man Félix, the return of her first love Mathieu, and the feelings of her classmate Stéphane.⁷

The adult storyline mirrors the first film. Her mother Françoise moves from comic-strip work into animated film, and her father François leaves his dental practice for research; absorbed by their careers and by their young son Lucas, they fail to notice what their daughter is going through, and their marriage goes through a crisis.⁵^•⁸ As before, Vic confides in her great-great-grandmother Poupette, played by Denise Grey.¹

Production and release

Pinoteau made the sequel two years after the original, which had revealed Sophie Marceau (born 1966) to French audiences and turned her into a star.⁹ The film was produced by Gaumont with the production company of Marcel Dassault, and the CNC registered it under visa number 54579 with a runtime of 109 minutes and a length of 2,950 meters.²^•³ Later catalogs give slightly different runtimes, 106 minutes at Gaumont, 104 minutes at the Limédia library catalog, and 1h47 at AlloCiné and Pathé Home.⁴^•¹⁰^•¹

The cast largely carries over from the first film: Claude Brasseur and Brigitte Fossey as the parents, Denise Grey as Poupette, Sheila O'Connor as Pénélope, and Alexandre Sterling as Mathieu, joined by Pierre Cosso as Philippe and by Lambert Wilson, Zabou Breitman, Xavier Gélin, Robert Dalban, and Élie Chouraqui in supporting roles.⁴ Sandrine Bonnaire, who had been cast in the first film, appears in La Boum 2 as an extra.¹¹

Box office and reception

Commercial performance. The sequel matched the first film's French result: 4,071,585 admissions after its December 1982 release, placing sixth in the 1982 French box-office ranking.¹ The Larousse yearbook of 1982 grouped its success with that of L'As des As among the year's popular French productions.¹² A December 1982 FR3 news report described the film as having become "un phénomène social" and interviewed both Pinoteau and Marceau about the sequel.¹³

Awards. At the 1983 César ceremony the film received three nominations, for Best Music (Vladimir Cosma), Best Supporting Actress (Denise Grey), and Most Promising Actress; only Marceau's nomination was converted into an award.¹

Critical reception. Contemporary and later reviews were divided. The Cinéfiches review gave the film 9/20 and criticized it as a reassuring, bourgeois family comedy riding on the first film's commercial success.¹⁴ A retrospective SensCritique review called it a semi-disappointment, arguing that Vic's character is written as more petulant and less touching than in the first film, though it noted the Samantha character as an exception among the underdeveloped returning roles.¹⁵ Another retrospective reviewer found the parents' marital crisis more substantial than in the original while judging that the film repeats the first film's formula.¹¹ On AlloCiné, where users rate the film 2.4 out of 5 from about 3,800 ratings, many viewer reviews treat it as a nostalgic classic of 1980s French cinema.¹⁶

Aftermath

The film was Marceau's second screen role. After it, she quarreled with Pinoteau when she declined the lead in his next film, La 7ème cible: Gaumont required her to pay a dédit (contractual penalty) of one million francs, five times her fee, which she repaid through a loan that took years to settle. She and Pinoteau later reconciled and worked together again on L'Étudiante in 1988.⁹

The film has remained in circulation on home video and streaming: Gaumont lists 2K, HD, and SD masters, and the film is available for rent or purchase on French platforms including Canal VOD, Pathé Home, Rakuten TV, and Apple TV Store.⁴^•⁶

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Franchise and series entries as standalone works › Teen and comedy series film entries › Entries released before 1990

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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