Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Gilles' Wife

EMAILPRINTCinema Guild

Gilles' Wife reviews
82
8.1 User Score:

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama  |  Foreign

Written by: Philippe Blasband
Frédéric Fonteyne
Marion Hänsel
Madeleine Bourdouxhe (novel)

Directed by: Frédéric Fonteyne

Release Date:
Theatrical: November 16, 2005
DVD: August 8, 2006

Running Time: 103 minutes, Color

Origin: Belgium / France / Luxembourg / Italy / Switzerland

Language(s): French (with English subtitles)

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Emmanuelle Devos, Clovis Cornillac, Laura Smet, Alice Verlinden, Chloé Verlinden, Colette Emmanuelle, and Gil Lagay

Set in the 1930's, Gilles' Wife is a haunting tale of love and betrayal in a small mining town on the outskirts of France. (Cinema Guild)

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...

90

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

You can't imagine a soapier setup, but Gilles' Wife taken on its own terms is a spectacular achievement, a heartbreaking cinematic work that finely balances melodrama, family love story and devastating tragedy.

Read Full Review >
90

Variety Lisa Nesselson

Told primarily via body language and facial expressions with a minimum of dialogue, beautifully observed, emotionally intense tale is an ambitious and rewarding outing for Frederic Fonteyne.

Read Full Review >
90

Village Voice David Ng

Devos's performance is an expert workshop of internalized emotions and silent forbearance.

Read Full Review >
88

TV Guide Ken Fox

Cornillac is excellent as the emotionally immature Gilles, but this is Devos' show.

Read Full Review >
88

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

The ending is a stunner. Like those '30 classics it suggests, Gilles' Wife seduces us with true cinematic magic: rich characters, great acting and that rapturous old French blend of realism and theatricality.

Read Full Review >
88

Miami Herald Marta Barber

There's a timelessness to her character that makes her real even today. And in Devos' intense portrayal, she's a woman you admire.

Read Full Review >
80

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

All but a silent movie, Frédéric Fonteyne’s strikingly atmospheric film - adapted by Philippe Blasband and Marion Hänsel from a 1937 novel - relies on the extraordinarily mobile face of Emmanuelle Devos to express the pain of a woman who has no language for her inner turmoil.

Read Full Review >
80

Los Angeles Times Robert Abele

Suffused with a painterly tenderness and cruelty, the French film Gilles' Wife - based on a 1937 Belgian novel by Madeleine Bourdouxhe - stars the extraordinary actress Emmanuelle Devos.

Read Full Review >
80

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

An impeccable minimalist drama that's tailored specifically to Devos' expressive capabilities, which say more than the sparse dialogue.

Read Full Review >
80

Chicago Reader Reece Pendleton

While the outcome is never really in doubt, director Frederic Fonteyne illuminates the wife's inner world with a rich sense of atmosphere, and Emmanuelle Devos' riveting performance manages to convey every shift in her character's suppressed emotional life with the subtlest of gestures and expressions.

Read Full Review >
75

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Fonteyne doesn't have much use for words. He prefers to tell his story via facial expressions and body language, much as filmmakers did in the silent era.

Read Full Review >
75

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

This is a lyrical art movie with admittedly limited commercial appeal, but worth seeing for cinematic explorers.

Read Full Review >
75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

I was fascinated by the face of Emmanuelle Devos, and her face is specifically why I recommend the movie.

Read Full Review >
70

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Has an appealing surface beauty, largely due to the talented cinematographer Virginie Saint Martin, and an equally shallow mystery.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

J H gave it a7:
The acting and directing are first-rate, but I was unable to suspend my disbelief of a story about a woman who had no courage, so I wasn't fully engaged by this movie.

Sherri E. gave it a6:
That 6 is actually a 9 for technical excellence and a 3 for story. The film is so beautifully photographed, and the acting so fine, that the disappointing story becomes trebly so. Her final decision is so selfish and cruel that it retroactively tainted the preceding 100 minutes.

richard gave it a7:
I found this film engrossing but frustrating....in the wife's total compliance.

Popular on CBS sites: College Signing Day | Olympics | Lost | iPhone | Cell Phones | Video Game Reviews | Free Music

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use