UN COEUR EN HIVER Movie Review

A Heart in Winter

Stephane (Daniel Auteuil) is a master craftsman who repairs violins with the care, sensitivity, and attention to perfection of a great surgeon. One day, a stunningly beautiful violinist (Emmanuelle Béart) comes into the shop that Stephane and his partner Maxime (André Dussollier) run together. A complicated and potentially messy love story evolves involving the three of them, leading to the quietly sad revelation that as skilled as Stephane may be, he hasn't the temperament—or the willingness to risk failure—that love and art both require. Claude Sautet's delicate and deeply wise portrait of a love that does not triumph could be considered the ultimate music video for grownups. Sautet conjures his characters’ feelings through the most subtle directorial nuance; he brings us close and lets each actor's face make the most complicated and contradictory impulses completely palpable. The film's music, almost entirely Ravel, is an integral part of the film's hypnotic rhythm, helping to lead us to that moment—which even Stephane can't fully express verbally—in which he knows that he can go this far but no further, and is unwilling to endure the disruptions that would accompany a commitment to passion. He's unable to leave his known, frozen world, a risk-free universe where his heart beats calmly and unexcitedly in its perpetual winter. César Awards for Best Director and Supporting Actor (Dussollier).

NEXT STOP … Vincent, François, Paul and the Others, Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud, Tous les Matins du Monde

1993 100m/C FR Emmanuelle Beart, Daniel Auteuil, Andre Dussollier, Elisabeth Bourgine, Brigitte Catillon, Maurice Garrel, Miriam Boyer; D: Claude Sautet; W: Jacques Fieschi, Jerome Tonnerre; C: Yves Angelo. Cesar Awards ‘93: Best Director (Sautet), Best Supporting Actor (Dussollier); Nominations: British Academy Awards ‘93: Best Foreign Film. VHS, LV REP