Gabrielle

Patrice Chereau's latest film is an interesting chamber piece. Gabrielle is based on a short story by Joseph Conrad entitled The Return. It focuses on the marital problems of an upper class French couple that have been married ten years.

Jean (Pascal Gregory) feels quite content. He has a wife that he treats like a possession. They entertain people and are entertained by people several times a week. He thinks that his wife Gabrielle (Isabelle Huppert) is satisfied with the arrangement. There appears to be very little passion in their marriage. When he comes home one day he finds a letter from her saying that she left him for another man. He just can't understand why she would do something like that. Within a matter of hours she returns and tells him that she just couldn't carry out her plan.
He starts to treat her with great disdain and as time goes on things really start to unravel.

The film is very well acted by both Huppert and Gregory. We couldn't ask for a more perfectly matched couple (in the acting sense that is). The film is beautiful to look at and for that we have Eric Gautier to thank (he was also the cinematographer for The Motorcycle Diaries among other films). The film goes back and forth between black & white and color which I thought was an interesting touch. But I felt there was something missing from the film and I found that I admired it rather than liked it. It was very theatrical and I think that it would work better as a play. It is talkie but that does not bother me. I like those type of films. However, I think of last year's Saraband and also Scenes from a Marriage, both directed by Ingmar Bergman, and know how good an intense film about the end of a relationship can be. Cheareau is a good director but with this one he missed the mark by just a bit. I am glad that I saw this film because I am a great fan of Ms. Huppert (and as much as I like her I thought that Mr. Gregory was even better) but for most people who are interested in seeing it I would say to wait for the DVD.