Film Review
With his third feature, writer-director Christian Vincent takes his cue from
Ingmar Bergman's
Scenes from
a Marriage (1973) and presents a similar emotionally charged account
of a disintegrating love affair.
La Séparation is the
most intense and uncompromisingly truthful of Vincent's films to date, benefiting
not only from its author's sensitive treatment of a delicate subject, but
also remarkable performances from its lead actors Isabelle Huppert and Daniel
Auteuil, both at the absolute height of their powers. Previously, Vincent
had won widespread critical acclaim with his debut feature,
La Discrète (1990), which
received Césars in both the Best Screenplay and Best First Work categories.
Adapted from a novel by Dan Franck (who also assisted Vincent on the screenplay),
La Séparation adopts a suffocatingly
huis clos approach
that focuses almost exclusively on its two central protagonists as they wake
up to the fact their relationship is finally over. Maybe they have
suspected this for some time, but habit and possibly fear of a traumatic
rupture has made it impossible for them to accept the truth. The film
begins at the point in the affair when the couple can no longer go on deceiving
themselves.
With immense subtlety on both the writing and acting fronts, we can detect
tell-tale chinks in the relationship right from the off and, as the failing love affair
becomes increasing unravelled we find ourselves being led down an all too
familiar path. Once you wake up to the fact that love is dead, there
is no going back. You just have to make your way towards the exit as
painlessly as you can. Unfortunately, as the film shows with blistering sincerity, it isn't quite
as straightforward as that.
Whilst Huppert is excellent (as ever) in this film, it is Auteuil whom we
are compelled to sympathise with most. Women seem better equipped to
deal with a conjugal breakdown than men, and Auteuil convinces us of this
with a knock-out performance that is absolutely heartbreaking to watch.
It is as if his character's whole inner being is being crushed to pulp by
some insatiable emotional mangle, and his seeming inability to let his partner
go with good grace, his insistence on holding on to something that is long
dead, makes harrowing viewing. There is a subtle savagery to this marvellously
understated film that makes it bitterly authentic and intensely moving.
© James Travers 2019
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Next Christian Vincent film:
Sauve-moi (2000)
Film Synopsis
Pierre and Anne are a young couple in their thirties who have been together
for several years. They have enjoyed a harmonious and loving relationship
for some time, living together in their cosy apartment with their two-year-old
son Loulou. They could not be happier. Then, suddenly, a coldness
enters their relationship. Pierre is the first to notice this, a vague
awareness of a slow drifting apart of two souls that had once been intimately
wedded together. The situation does not improve as the weeks go by.
From this slight impression of coldness develops a sense of estrangement,
and the once loving couple are soon painfully aware of the gulf opening up
between them.
Finally, Anne has to come clean and admit that she has started to see another
man. Pierre had suspected as much but even when his partner delivers
the damning news with her own words he can scarcely take it in. Suddenly,
he feels his whole world collapsing around him. Where there was once
devotion and understanding there is now bitterness and resentment.
It's true - their love is dead. There is only one way out of this mess
- Anne and Pierre must agree to an amicable separation. But how can they do so without harming
themselves and their precious child...?
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.