Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
66
Bandslam
45
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
29
Collector, The
23
Couples Retreat
80
District 9
61
Extract
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
60
Funny People
32
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
27
Gamer
41
G-Force
39
Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, The
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Love Happens
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
My Sister's Keeper
42
Orphan
28
Pandorum
63
Perfect Getaway, A
86
Ponyo![]()
35
Post Grad
48
Proposal, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
24
Sorority Row
83
Star Trek![]()
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D![]()
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
88
Up![]()
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
Adela
39
Adventures of Power
78
Afghan Star
61
After the Storm
66
Afterschool
xx
All the Best
58
American Casino
72
Amreeka
48
Antichrist
73
Araya
62
Art & Copy
55
As Seen Through These Eyes
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
13
Beautiful Life, A
70
Beeswax
35
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71
Big Fan
66
Black Dynamite
51
Blind Date
xx
Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76
Bliss
35
Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
Boys Are Back, The
45
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
Casi Divas
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
59
Collapse
44
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
67
Departures
xx
Dil Bole Hadippa
71
Disgrace
xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
Earth Days
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
64
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The![]()
xx
Heretics, The
63
Horse Boy, The
73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The![]()
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Gabrielle

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 20 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 7 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s):
Written by:
Patrice Chéreau
Anne-Louise Trividic
Joseph Conrad (novel The Return)
Directed by: Patrice Chéreau
Release Date:
Theatrical: July 14, 2006
DVD: December 19, 2006
Running Time: 90 minutes, Color
Origin: Germany / France / Italy
Summary
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)
Also On Metacritic
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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...
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.
Read Full Review >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").
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Dennis Lim
At once robust and ethereal, this is an existential ghost story, with fresh blood pulsing through its veins.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Greggory anchors Gabrielle in manly bewilderment and rage, while Huppert claws the title character's way to self-awareness.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Rick Kisonak
The film is a wonder and a joy to watch on any number of levels.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Huppert and Greggory provide the emotional impact. They respond accordingly, imbuing their mutual suffering with an exacting and moving finesse.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
So much of this adaptation is engrossing that the script's additions are jarring.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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).
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Bernard Besserglik
Gabrielle inspires mixed feelings; it is dialogue heavy but a treat for the eye.
Read Full Review >Variety Derek Elley
Though it won't appeal to everyone, the concoction actually works, thanks to Huppert and Greggory's powerful negative chemistry.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Chereau keeps us locked inside their suffocatingly unhappy home, making for an intensely theatrical chamber piece.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
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.
