Gabrielle (2006) Synopsis:
"Gabrielle" is Patrice Chéreau's stunning adaptation of the short story "The Return" by Joseph Conrad. Recreating turn-of-the-century France with superb attention to detail, Chéreau casts an unrelenting gaze on the marital breakdown that overwhelms a middle-aged bourgeois couple, played with chilling precision by Isabelle Huppert and Pascal Greggory. As wealthy Parisian Mr. Hervey (Greggory) descends from a train into the teeming bustle of the city. While on his way home, he reflects on the sturdiness and success of his life and the fortress of security he has built around himself. It is not long before his self-satisfaction is rudely shattered when he discovers a letter from his wife, Gabrielle (Huppert), waiting for him on his sideboard. The contents of the message will crumble that security and plunge him into newfound feelings of vulnerability, abandonment and betrayal. The couple soon finds themselves engaged in a parry-and-thrust of emotions that change mid-sentence and stretch their ability to function and live in the same house.
Gabrielle (2006) Movie Review:
Based on Joseph Conrad's novella The Return, this elegant and dramatically devastating film picks an empty marriage apart bit by bit. It's a sharp work of cinema that's not remotely easy to watch.
In Paris a few years before the First World War, Jean (Greggory) is the master of a grand manor house, proud of his reputation as a host, his many possessions and his wife Gabrielle (Huppert). In that order. When Gabrielle leaves a letter saying she's found another man (Hancisse), Jean reacts as if he's been robbed. So when Gabrielle returns home in tears, nothing can be the way it was before.
Chéreau constructs this story with flashbacks in varying shades of colour and monochrome, with large on-screen captions to tell us where we are. He keeps the tone almost pathologically low-key, with incessant narration that only pauses long enough for a line of dialog to squeeze in before continuing on. And yes, this is fairly exhausting for viewers who don't speak French. Only fast readers will have time to take in the remarkable camera work, production design and, especially, the transparent but steely performances.
Huppert delivers another of her icy turns, barely moving a muscle and yet conveying the deep waves of turmoil within Gabrielle's soul. She also gives the character a jagged wit that slices through everyone she encounters. Meanwhile, Greggory has the much less sympathetic role as a sanctimonious jerk behaving like a spoiled prince who has far too much power and privilege. And yet, Greggory finds some tiny shard of inner dignity, even as we know Jean would feel better if Gabrielle was dead.
The script is pretentious and not very cinematic, leaving whole film claustrophobic and stagy. It's basically just two people locked in a manipulative battle of wits--she's wounded and still, he's smug and brash. But Chéreau directs it to astutely capture the central relationship, playing on the limited settings and the rigid class system (Gabrielle has three women to dress her). This adds another layer of meaning that turns remarkably chilling with the final turn of the screw.
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Gabrielle (2006) review written by: Rich Cline
13th October, 2008 
