[6] The following year, she began writing an autobiographical novel, Diabolo menthe, which, with the aid of a government grant, she adapted into the screenplay for her directorial debut Peppermint Soda (1977).
Starring François Cluzet, Élise Caron and Philippe Lebas, the film portrayed the May 1968 Paris student movement through the point of view of three children: Anne, Frank, and Bruno.
[15][16] Kurys again explored divorce in Entre Nous (Coup de foudre, 1983), this time from the maternal point of view, with Isabelle Huppert playing a mother who leaves her husband (Guy Marchand) and goes to Paris with her friend (Miou-Miou) and their children.
The film, inspired by Kurys' own family history, honored the emotional manners and conventions of the nineteen-forties and -fifties, whilst depicting a feminist relationship atypical of the time.
It follows an American film star (Peter Coyote) and an unknown British actress (Greta Scacchi) who meet on the set of a period drama in Rome.
[22] Kurys followed C'est la vie with the comedy Love After Love (Après l'amour, 1992) about a frustrated novelist, played by Isabelle Huppert, juggling affairs with two men,[23] and Six Days, Six Nights (À la folie, 1994) which examined the relationship between two adult sisters, portrayed by Anne Parillaud and Béatrice Dalle, after the death of their mother.
[29] Two years later, Kurys made another comedy, The Anniversary (L'anniversaire, 2005), about a famed TV producer (Lambert Wilson) who reunites his old gang of friends after the publication of a novel that paints him in a negative light.
The film features Pierre Palmade, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Zoé Félix, and Philippe Bas in supporting roles, and again received a middling critical response.
Her film For a Woman (Pour une femme, 2013) was shot in Lyon during the summer of 2012 with stars Benoît Magimel, Mélanie Thierry and Nicolas Duvauchelle.
Her most recent film, My Mother is Crazy (Ma mère est folle, 2018), starring Fanny Ardant, Vianney, Patrick Chesnais and Arielle Dombasle, was written by Pietro Caracciolo and Kurys' son Sacha Sperling.
[34] In addition, her ambivalence toward feminism and dislike of the "woman director" or "women's cinema" label has played a part in her lack of feminist film study scholarship.
[37] Kurys' use of her own life story, her inclusion of a stand-in for herself in most films, the recurring character types and situations from her memories and concerns in her present, all create a body of work specifically centered on a unique female voice.
Tarr theorizes that Kurys' signature contains two voices,[38] one which reflect her rebellion against the male-centric world she meant to escape by turning from acting to filmmaking, and the other which collaborates with the patriarchal structure she still must operate within to be successful.