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Gabrielle
IFC First Take


5.8

based on 20 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 7 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Isabelle Huppert, Pascal Greggory, Claudia Coli, Thierry Hancisse, Chantal Neuwirth, Thierry Fortineau, Louise Vincent, and Clément Hervieu-Léger

Patrice Chéreau directs this 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. (IFC First Take)

GENRE(S):
WRITTEN BY:	Patrice Chéreau Anne-Louise Trividic Joseph Conrad (novel The Return)
DIRECTED BY:	Patrice Chéreau
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: December 19, 2006 Theatrical: July 14, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	90 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Germany / France / Italy
LANGUAGE(S):	French (with English subtitles)

Best Costume Design and Best Production Design, 2006 César Awards; Nominated, Golden Lion, 2005 Venice Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Together with his extraordinary performers, Mr. Chéreau breathes life into characters who long ago set a course for death.

100

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

If all this potent drama recalls Bergman, the beautifully articulated staging and setting suggest that master of operatic social-sexual drama, Luchino Visconti ("The Leopard").

100

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

A period chamber drama drawn from a Joseph Conrad short story and of such intensity and passion that it transcends a specificity of time and place to achieve timelessness and universality.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

In Chéreau's hands, Gabrielle has an operatic quality that throws the repressive environment into sharp relief; the film works like a pressure cooker, seething with bottled passions that intermittently burst through with startling cruelty and violence.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

A haunting and riveting work, unlike anything else you can see at the movies and as such an explicit challenge to the unambitious, anesthetic character of most contemporary cinema. But is it easy, or delightful, or fun? It is not.

Village Voice Dennis Lim

At once robust and ethereal, this is an existential ghost story, with fresh blood pulsing through its veins.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Patrice Chereau's portrait of a marriage en crise is an excoriating look at the deep unhappiness that can fester within the most respectable-seeming of households.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Greggory anchors Gabrielle in manly bewilderment and rage, while Huppert claws the title character's way to self-awareness.

Film Threat Rick Kisonak

The film is a wonder and a joy to watch on any number of levels.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Huppert and Greggory provide the emotional impact. They respond accordingly, imbuing their mutual suffering with an exacting and moving finesse.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The film's impact has a lot to do with Fabio Vacchi's original score, which is both plaintive and coldly modernist, with echoes of Charles Ives.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

So much of this adaptation is engrossing that the script's additions are jarring.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Gabrielle, a quietly insidious tale of domestic warfare that makes the protagonists of Bergman's "Scenes From a Marriage" look like pussycats, will exasperate and satisfy in roughly equal measure.

Chicago Reader Richard M. Porton

This highly stylized portrait of a loveless marriage at the beginning of the 20th century merges a claustrophobic theatricality with dazzlingly cinematic wide-screen compositions (the sumptuous cinematography is by Eric Gautier).

The Hollywood Reporter Bernard Besserglik

Gabrielle inspires mixed feelings; it is dialogue heavy but a treat for the eye.

Variety Derek Elley

Though it won't appeal to everyone, the concoction actually works, thanks to Huppert and Greggory's powerful negative chemistry.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Chereau keeps us locked inside their suffocatingly unhappy home, making for an intensely theatrical chamber piece.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The catch in Gabrielle is that the audience pays as well.

Empire David Parkinson

This looks and sounds superb. Isabelle Huppert and Pascal Gregory are splendid. But the over-archingly smug sophistication of the enterprise robs it of some much-needed human interest.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A chilly, pretentious and talky drama.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.8 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Marc K. gave it a2:
I rented this because of the high critical marks it received. But why? Although sumptuous to look at, slow, uninteresting, and pointless.

Enrique gave it a9:
Excellent adaptation of Conrad's story. Superb performances by Huppert, Greggory and the suporting cast. One of Chereau's best films so far.

Christina C. gave it a10:
Fantastic film, especially for Huppert fans. She is at her strongest and the film is a devastatingly real depiction of marriage gone wrong. Kept me at the edge of my seat.

[Anonymous] gave it a3:
At least 10 couples walked out on this movie. We hung in there, but were sorry. Some short stories simply work better on the page than on the screen.

Mega W. gave it a4:
Not bad, but the air was too rich, too many long glances at details to the point of overload; here it becomes rather much. Should have moved faster instead of lingering tortuously slow on some elements- much as I appreciate the truths shown in the film and the wisdom it tries to impart, it felt leaden and dreary, almost an inescapable ruinous fate of the otherwise privledged. Good performances, the lead actress is the best thing to watch in the whole film, beautiful backdrops and costumes, oh, and a bit of brief nudity that for once is completely appropriate with the plot. The music was getting to me after awhile, too loud and too heavy handed, as opposed to a subtle and skillful touch; I think the audience could get the point without the distractingly overdone score. Decent film, but could have skipped it or waited for the dvd. Will put all but the most devoted indie-French film audience close to sleep.

Robert I. gave it a5:
Despite the whip-smart leads and the panache of hotel particulier on the Parc Monceau, we ultimately don't care about these tortured souls because we do not know them. Stylish and cold as ice.

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Gabrielle IFC First Take

Gabrielle
IFC First Take