Cinecultist knows we should probably be anticipating some overblown summer buddy comedy like You, Me and Dupree but between Manolha Dargis's review in the New York Times today and Reverse Shot's on Monday via indieWire has us all a-twitter for Gabrielle which is out this weekend. It stars Isabelle Huppert (one of our pantheon actresses, thusly distinguished because we could watch them read the phonebook on screen) and was directed by Patrice Chéreau, who made one of our other obsessions, Queen Margot.
Dargis writes:
"As Mr. Chéreau fluidly moves back and forth in time, using different color schemes and editing rhythms to express what the characters themselves cannot always say, he forces air into a story that in the writing and the subject can feel moribund on the page....Both actors keep you riveted, even when Mr. Chéreau blows up passages from Conrad’s text, cutting away entirely from the performers (making you all the more anxious for their return) or obscuring their images with a well-chosen word ("Stay!"). Together with his extraordinary performers, Mr. Chéreau breathes life into characters who long ago set a course for death."
P.S. Happy Bastille Day, our fellow Francophiles. Viva la cinema français!
Posted by karen at July 14, 2006 4:25 PM