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GABRIELLE Send This Review to a Friend
Isabelle Huppert teams with Pascal Gregory to star in “Gabrielle,” a new film by French director Patrice Chéreau. Gregory plays a cold businessman who has married a beautiful young woman and now their bourgeois life is on the way to exploding. On the surface all is calm as they entertain friends with weekly dinners. But the wife has a shocker in store for her complacent husband. She abruptly leaves him to be with a lover. Compounding the surprise, she returns, and there is an all-out battle between husband and wife.
I don’t find some of the film believable as co-scripted by Chéreau and Anne-Louise Trividic. We learn that the couple has not been having sex throughout their marriage, and yet the husband, not a dummy, seems genuinely surprised that his wife has cheated on him. Their ensuing argument is also held in front of their friends, not likely given their habits and status. The film is based on “The Return,” a short story by Conrad, and the woman’s role has been built up for the adaptation, set pre-World War I. The acting is fine, but the matter of credibility is a problem.
That said, watching Huppert at work carries its own reward. She is an ever-fascinating actress and the camera persists in loving her. Director Chéreau gives us ample opportunity to study her every facial expression, her overall demeanor and, in fact, her every movement.
Gregory more than holds his own with his performance. He has a commanding presence, and he is able to show bewilderment mixed with anger and having to come to terms with what his wife has done.
This is one of those films one might describe as very, very French, and as such it is well worth seeing. An IFC First Take release.
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