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Gilles' Wife

Universal acclaim
Based on 14 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 6 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
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)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: An Affair of Love
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...
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 >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 >Village Voice David Ng
Devos's performance is an expert workshop of internalized emotions and silent forbearance.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Cornillac is excellent as the emotionally immature Gilles, but this is Devos' show.
Read Full Review >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 >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 >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 >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 >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 >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 >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 >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 >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 >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.
