Screened at the Venice International Film Festival
PARIS -- Patrice Chereau's films have all been marked by his origins and continuing interest in theater, but rarely can this have been so much the case as in his 10th feature, "Gabrielle", which is essentially a two-hander set in an enclosed space. The film is set for a Sept. 28 release in France.
With a competition screening at Venice, Gabrielle may achieve a degree of commercial success internationally, and preliminary agreements already have been signed for sales in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Greece and the Benelux countries. Absorbing rather than engaging, the movie makes few concessions to popular appeal, except possibly in its home market, and appears to settle too readily for the art house label.
Based on Joseph Conrad's short story "The Return", the movie is the portrayal of a marriage and its abrupt demise. Jean Hervey (Pascal Greggory), a wealthy publisher who has lived complacently but lovelessly with his wife, Gabrielle (Isabelle Huppert), for the past 10 years, comes home one evening to find that she has fled her gilded cage after an affair with another man. He has barely had time to digest the contents of her farewell letter when she returns and announces that she has decided after all to stay with him. They spend the next three days and nights dissecting their feelings and examining her reasons for leaving and then for returning. In the process, Jean discovers the passion he had been lacking. But by then it is too late.
The movie is set in 1912, but the mood is so somber that it feels more fin de siecle Vienna than Belle Epoque Paris (and indeed the story was written in 1897). Greggory and Huppert's verbal jousting occupies two-thirds of the running time, and the cast list is expanded only by two society evenings, one of them presented in flashback, and the constant flitting of serving maids, one of whom, Yvonne (Claudia Coli), acts as a confidante to Gabrielle.
"Gabrielle" inspires mixed feelings; it is dialogue heavy but a treat for the eye. Chereau has amassed a huge budget ($6.5 million) for what amounts to a chamber piece, and he certainly gets value for money. Shot by Chereau regular Eric Gautier, the movie is lavishly mounted, lingering on the opulence of the settings and the costumes. The lighting -- crepuscular but sensuous, with an emphasis on gold and brown -- succeeds in offsetting the darkness of Conrad's story. Added to the intensity of the performances by the principals, the visuals occasionally lend the movie a certain grandeur.
But Chereau spoils it all by frequently resorting to trivial mannerisms, slipping gratuitously into black and white, using freeze frames, slow motion or sudden fades to white and inserting silent movie-style titles either to provide dialogue or to comment on the narrative. The film opens with a lengthy voice-over by Jean in which he addresses the spectator to tell him how good life has been to him, but this is never resumed, and it is with an insert that Chereau informs us at the close, as Jean stumbles out the front door into the first light of dawn, that "he never returned."
GABRIELLE
Azor Films, Albachiara
Credits:
Director: Patrice Chereau
Screenwriters: Patrice Chereau, Anne-Louise Trividic
Producer: Joseph Strub
Director of photography: Eric Gautier
Production designer: Olivier Radot
Music: Fabio Vacchi
Costume designer: Caroline de Vivaise
Editor: Francois Gedigier
Cast:
Gabrielle: Isabelle Huppert
Jean Hervey: Pascal Greggory
Yvonne: Claudia Coli
The Editor: Thierry Hancisse
Madeleine: Chantal Neuwirth
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 90 minutes...
PARIS -- Patrice Chereau's films have all been marked by his origins and continuing interest in theater, but rarely can this have been so much the case as in his 10th feature, "Gabrielle", which is essentially a two-hander set in an enclosed space. The film is set for a Sept. 28 release in France.
With a competition screening at Venice, Gabrielle may achieve a degree of commercial success internationally, and preliminary agreements already have been signed for sales in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Greece and the Benelux countries. Absorbing rather than engaging, the movie makes few concessions to popular appeal, except possibly in its home market, and appears to settle too readily for the art house label.
Based on Joseph Conrad's short story "The Return", the movie is the portrayal of a marriage and its abrupt demise. Jean Hervey (Pascal Greggory), a wealthy publisher who has lived complacently but lovelessly with his wife, Gabrielle (Isabelle Huppert), for the past 10 years, comes home one evening to find that she has fled her gilded cage after an affair with another man. He has barely had time to digest the contents of her farewell letter when she returns and announces that she has decided after all to stay with him. They spend the next three days and nights dissecting their feelings and examining her reasons for leaving and then for returning. In the process, Jean discovers the passion he had been lacking. But by then it is too late.
The movie is set in 1912, but the mood is so somber that it feels more fin de siecle Vienna than Belle Epoque Paris (and indeed the story was written in 1897). Greggory and Huppert's verbal jousting occupies two-thirds of the running time, and the cast list is expanded only by two society evenings, one of them presented in flashback, and the constant flitting of serving maids, one of whom, Yvonne (Claudia Coli), acts as a confidante to Gabrielle.
"Gabrielle" inspires mixed feelings; it is dialogue heavy but a treat for the eye. Chereau has amassed a huge budget ($6.5 million) for what amounts to a chamber piece, and he certainly gets value for money. Shot by Chereau regular Eric Gautier, the movie is lavishly mounted, lingering on the opulence of the settings and the costumes. The lighting -- crepuscular but sensuous, with an emphasis on gold and brown -- succeeds in offsetting the darkness of Conrad's story. Added to the intensity of the performances by the principals, the visuals occasionally lend the movie a certain grandeur.
But Chereau spoils it all by frequently resorting to trivial mannerisms, slipping gratuitously into black and white, using freeze frames, slow motion or sudden fades to white and inserting silent movie-style titles either to provide dialogue or to comment on the narrative. The film opens with a lengthy voice-over by Jean in which he addresses the spectator to tell him how good life has been to him, but this is never resumed, and it is with an insert that Chereau informs us at the close, as Jean stumbles out the front door into the first light of dawn, that "he never returned."
GABRIELLE
Azor Films, Albachiara
Credits:
Director: Patrice Chereau
Screenwriters: Patrice Chereau, Anne-Louise Trividic
Producer: Joseph Strub
Director of photography: Eric Gautier
Production designer: Olivier Radot
Music: Fabio Vacchi
Costume designer: Caroline de Vivaise
Editor: Francois Gedigier
Cast:
Gabrielle: Isabelle Huppert
Jean Hervey: Pascal Greggory
Yvonne: Claudia Coli
The Editor: Thierry Hancisse
Madeleine: Chantal Neuwirth
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 90 minutes...
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