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- 2022
- Météore Films
- 1 h 3 m
- 2022
- Météore Films
- 1 h 3 m
Summary A Couple follows a long term relationship between a man and a woman. The man is Leo Tolstoy. The woman is his wife, Sophia.
Directed By: Frederick Wiseman
Written By: Nathalie Boutefeu, Frederick Wiseman
- 2022
- Météore Films
- 1 h 3 m
- 2022
- Météore Films
- 1 h 3 m
A Couple
74
9.8
Summary A Couple follows a long term relationship between a man and a woman. The man is Leo Tolstoy. The woman is his wife, Sophia.
Directed By: Frederick Wiseman
Written By: Nathalie Boutefeu, Frederick Wiseman
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 13 Critic Reviews
74
77% Positive
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
23% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 13 Critic Reviews
74
77% Positive
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
23% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Wiseman has made a vocation out of filming what is right in front of him, and he applies that schematic to a dead woman whose words are all that remain. Her husband did not see her, but we will.
Though A Couple is [Wiseman's] first narrative feature in 20 years, the narrative structure documents history by fashioning Sophia’s diaries and letters as a performance.
A dazzling suite of emotions plays out within the confines of Boutefeu’s subdued, sensitive, gradually mesmerizing performance. At times she stares with laserlike focus into the camera, as if she had located the object of her scorn seated just behind the lens. Mostly she stares pensively into the middle distance, lost in the phantasms of memory.
The result is an expressive and moving portrait of a tempestuous marriage, one told with elan that feels rich in feeling even if its entire budget probably wouldn’t have covered the cost of croissants on an average film shoot in France.
A Couple ultimately constitutes not so much a footnote to Frederick Wiseman’s storied career as a beguiling little doodle in its margins.
While it’s great to see an example of a filmmaker refusing to rest on his laurels or stay inside the nearly defined box of his cultural reputation, a film must be a film – not just a concept. Un Couple never quite manages to transcend its origins as a precious pandemic project.
Performance aside, the key issue is that endless griping about a shitty marriage – even the marriage of arguably the pre-eminent figure of 19th century literature – is a drag.
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 11 User Ratings
9.8
100% Positive
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 11 User Ratings
9.8
100% Positive
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
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