In the course of a series of interviews with her mother, intended as the basis for a film about her own childhood, Diane Kurys became fascinated instead by her mother's past. Coup de foudre was the first of Kurys' films to enjoy a relatively large budget. It is also the first to be shot in Cinemascope, with star actors Isabelle Huppert, Miou-Miou and Guy Marchand in the lead roles, alongside the lesser known Jean-Pierre Bacri. The plot of Coup de foudre proceeds through short, succinct scenes which are not linked as tightly as in classic narrative but succeeded one another affectively or chronologically. Coup de foudre breaks with 'tales of martyrdom and malice' by reclaiming the agency and vision of a relatively ordinary woman, who is nevertheless 'an active participant in the socio-historic universe'.