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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.
