Gabrielle
(2005)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: C Film: C+
Isabelle
Huppert continues her golden period as mature top-rate French actress in
Patrice Chéreau’s drama Gabrielle
(2005), about a married woman who turns away from an affair at the last minute,
but still causes irreparable damage with her insecure husband Jean (Gregory
Pascal) already concerned about his socio-economic class unhappily at a lower
end.
Unfortunately,
instead of a character study or deeply explorative film, we get 90 minutes of
Huppert being treated badly by her husband in a way that makes you wonder (no
matter what era the film takes place in) she does not leave or attack. Michael Cimino was often criticized for the
way he allowed her character to be treated in his now-acknowledged masterwork Heaven’s Gate (1980) by men, but that
was nothing as compared to the abuse here.
Give or take rape, it is annoying.
Only the
good performances stop this from becoming a sick self-satire and outright mess,
but it never escapes a certain sense of pretension and is for the most curious
only.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image sometimes goes black and white, but does
not look all that great despite good production design and costumes. Detail is lacking and looking like a Super
35mm shoot, cinematographer Eric Gautier, A.F.C., overplays his hand switching
from monochrome to semi-color with words boldly printed on the screen for
book-like demarcations between segments.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is also lacking in fullness, but has some enough
surrounds to be a modern mix. Extras
include deleted scenes with Chéreau commentary and on-camera interviews with
the director and two leads.
- Nicholas Sheffo
