Renowned for her naturalistic style and keen insights into the problems facing modern women, Diane Kurys's decision to focus on the pre-Chopin love life of George Sand may seem eclectic, writes David Parkinson.

But parallels with contemporary experience abound in Les Enfants du Sicle, a fastidiously directed biopic, in which Juliette Binoche gives another steady performances, as the spurned baroness who seeks to support her children through literature.

Much of the focus, however, falls on the passionate folly of the poet Alfred de Musset (Benoit Magimel), who is driven by self-doubt and family disapproval into a life of debauchery and regret, as Sand takes solace in Italian physician, Stefano Dionisi.