Un Coeur en Hiver
It doesn’t happen often but I was extremely impressed by this scene (and the next one in the playlist) posted on Youtube. Unfortunately, though, these are possibly the two only great scenes of the whole film. (They were very, very great though – I liked them so much that I didn’t skip over them while watching the film.)
Maybe I have to keep myself away from all these French movies that are not Nouvelle Vague. I used to like „8 Femmes“ very much, but seriously, nothing feels as amusing and meaningful as the Nouvelle Vague. I get the impression that French films have a certain pseudo-intellectual heaviness, even the ones that I have liked (such as „La Belle Noiseuse“). Sometimes they are absolutely insupportable like „Un Conte de Noel“, sometimes even pointless comedies such as „Les Chansons d’Amour“ have this heavy emoness. In comparison to that, the Nouvelle Vagues, even Resnais whom I sort of dislike, have this incredible lightness in their characters.
This also applies to the characters. As much as I love Emmanuelle Béart (and her lovely face), I can’t help but dislike her severe character in this movie. Nevertheless, she is the star of this movie and a delight to see. Considering her background, I am surprised that she is such an amazing actress; her eyes are even more expressive than Anna Karina’s.
Daniel Auteil ist absolutely perfect as shy boy and Dussollier… ah, he’s always the same. The problem with him is that he looks like a father figure (yay Tanguy) no matter how old he is. He just doesn’t really work as lover, and I should have mentioned this for „Mélo“ already. But, luckily he’s good enough as an actor to sort of make up for it. In fact, this movie is a worse „Mélo“ with completely different characters.
I can’t believe the main character could possibly say „I am sorry, I don’t love you“ and I feel completely cold.
Finally, the last reason why this movie probably didn’t do it for me is the fact that I didn’t enjoy its music, which unfortunately is also playing an immense role in it. I usually like Ravel, and I am all for expressive, complicated, slightly modern music, I would even say that expressionist music is my favorite… but the music of this film is exactly like the film itself: Too heavy to transport its emotions.