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31 out of 33 people found the following comment useful :- A very sad film but beautifully realized, 2 June 2002 Author: Howard Schumann from Vancouver, B.C.
Brother, can you spare a heart?In Un Coeur en Hiver, the late Claude Sautet looks into the heart of Stephane, a master violin craftsman (Daniel Auteuil), and finds only ice. Stephane is an observer of life, not a participant. The film reveals the consequences of his emotional isolation, of what he has to give up in order to maintain his solitude. Un Coeur en Hiver is as far from a typical Hollywood romance as Casablanca is from L'Avventura. The film is almost a revisionist portrayal of the usual debonair French romantic lover. While the lovely sonatas and trios of Maurice Ravel form a haunting background, there is a lifeless quality to Stephane and ennui is a palpable presence throughout.Stephane seems ready to leap into a passionate relationship with a beautiful young violinist, Camille (Emmanuelle Beart) after Maxim, his partner for many years (also in love with Camille), introduces her to Stephane. Stephane, however, is unable to relate to Maxim's friendship or to his growing attraction to Camille and becomes distant and manipulative.Held back by his reluctance to take risks, his relationship with Camille provides him with the forms of intimacy but without the substance. No pat psychological interpretation is provided but is left to the viewer to interpret. The camera is reserved and intimate. For the most part, emotions are conveyed through glances, expressions, and silences rather than dialogue.The scene where Camille finally explodes out of frustration over Stephane's emotional distance, however, is powerful, yet is not enough to shake the reluctant lover from his hiding place. At a restaurant, Camille tells Stephanie, "He says he likes music because "music is dreams". "Poor jerk", she blurts out, "You know nothing about dreams". Pointing to his heart, she says, "There is nothing in there, nothing. No imagination, no heart, no balls". Stephane simply sits there with a half grin on his face. I could really feel Camille's frustration in trying to pluck fruit from a barren tree.Auteuil's outstanding performance makes him a likable figure, a really sweet guy but a very sad one. I felt repeatedly like shaking him from his lethargy and exposing him to joy and the rhythmic beauty of life, perhaps adding a little Mozart to his Ravel.At the end, however, there is some character development. Stephane finally recognizes that "there is something lifeless inside of me." As his friends depart, he is left sitting alone at a restaurant table, poignantly feeling his loneliness. Perhaps this insight is the beginning of his transformation. A very sad film but beautifully realized.
19 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :- Who cares about plot? As beautiful to listen to as to watch., 6 September 1999 Author: icon-7
A visually-beautiful film. Even if the plot were not good (but it is) it would still be worth seeing for its good-looks.Beart (Camille) is magnificent! When I first saw the film I thought she was a real violinist, so convincing was her 'playing'. She and Auteuil (Stephane) employ that subtle 'facial' acting, so popular in French cinema. As both their faces are quite lovely, this is a pleasure to watch. Is Beart the most beautiful woman on screen? Probably.This movie is like a dream sometimes. It gives clues to the riddles of the characters, but does not reveal their essences. Sometimes you have to wonder if the story is really a kind of allegory, with the characters as symbols, their full significance yet to be revealed.Look out for what appears to be an important scene featuring Stephane's parents, towards the end of the film. It is not obviously enlightening, but it may prove to hold the key to his love-less character. There is a climax to the story, but no real resolution or explanation. Yes, it's the 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' unresolved-ending phenomenon back with a vengeance. And how much more interesting it makes this intriguing story!Oh - and the music is a substantial part of the film - not just 'background', which is a good thing.
20 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :- C'est froid, ca!, 8 December 2004 Author: Richard E. from Filthydelphia
At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, I wish to convey that I view this movie as one of the greatest ever made. (That is, if you can cope with it). Un Coeur is an exquisite and worthy swan song for veteran filmmaker Claude Sautet. I know people who do not like this movie and charge its precepts as self-indulgent, stodgy, and other such indictments. Of course, everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. For me however, the scene in which the character played by Ms. Beart is rehearsing Ravel with her quartet and the character of Mr. Auteuil stares her down as only a man from France can do; with a heady combination of lust, reluctance, and sobriety- that scene takes 'psychodrama' to a new level. C'est froid, ca!There are only a handful of movies at the top of the mountain of Parnassus. For me, this is one of them. Bravi.
14 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :- A beautiful violinist obsessed with unrequited love..., 13 August 2000 Author: Peegee-3 (poetsrx@webtv.net) from Santa Monica, CA
This is a haunting film...in its visual beauty, in its performances and certainly in the sensitive direction of Claude Sautet. Auteuil and Beart are perfectly cast. It's a unique theme...in that a beautiful woman obsessed with a man cannot arouse any real passion or interest in him..because as the title implies, his heart is frozen. What I found particularly moving was how both Auteuil's portayal and the script itself made him, for me, a sympathetic figure...I felt I could understand him and feel his inner angst (for whatever psychological reason).Beart too gave her characterization a depth and a reality that made me not only believe in her plight, but remember when I had some of those same feelings. The violin playing and exquisite music also added a lovely melancholy touch. For me, this was Sautet's masterpiece. Wish he were still with us to give the world more of his talent.
11 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :- Beart's performance is heart-wrenching!, 6 August 2002 Author: (kevhaw@webtv.net) from St.Catharines, Canada
Un Coeur En Hiver is a deeply moving film. Beart's achingly beautiful performance as a violinist who becomes infatuated with an emotionally stunted craftsman, is breathtaking to behold. The craftsman, played by Auteuil, displays an almost unbelievable emptiness of emotion, as he rejects the "unrejectable" Camile(Beart)! The soundtrack of this movie conveys as much emotion as the lead characters do, and is hauntingly beautiful to the ear. This movie is a must for Beart fans! Just seeing those beautiful intense eyes is reason enough to view this film.
11 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :- The Violinist-Psychologist not quite in Love, 22 February 2002 Author: Tom McAnn from New York, NY
The plot revolves around the 'love triangle' of Camille, Stephan, and Maxine. Camille is a young up and coming concert violinist, and Stephan and Maxine are violin craftsmen. Camille is one of their many clients. The main character of this film, Stephan--played by Daniel Auteuil--is brilliant. He is a good looking and quiet man who knows what he wants and is secure in this: solitude--regardless of the amorous advances of Camille, the beautiful and brilliant young violinist who winds up dating his business partner Maxime, and whom he could seduce very easily. Many people analyzing Stephan's character would immediately say that he is sociopathic, deranged, insecure, or whatever. But Stephan is actually fully in control of his life throughout the whole film. He is not aware of fleeting passions like infatuation because he does not exist outside of passion: He is passion incarnate as he is very in tune with what he wants and is skillful at asserting his desires; so much so that those who encounter him become very jarred. His personna functions as a mirror that reflects other people's neuroses and fears back at them instead of absorbing them into itself and thus becoming poisoned. In this way, he's almost like a freelance mobile psychoanalyst passing through different bistros and concert halls in Paris, and disrupting the otherwise 'normal' relationships of those he encounters. The psychological tension throughout the film is thick from the start, and reaches a point of absolute saturation at its apogee. The viewer cannot help but find himself emotionally invested in the plot. The background score of the film is beautiful.
14 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :- A True Masterpiece, 20 April 2003 Author: Insp. Clouzot from Sleepless in Norfolk, dreaming of Paris
Marvelous actors. Wonderful music. Subtle dialogues. A true masterpiece with 2 (may be 3 with Andre Dussolier) outstanding performances by Emmanuelle Beart et Daniel Auteuil. Finally a credible analysis of love - meaning not the stupid usual fare from Hollywood - with all its meanders, its non-linearities.Part of my all times top 10 list.Note : you need to watch it at least 3 times to grasp all the subtleties, the finesse of the dialogues. Also as so often the case with French movies the ending is open to the viewer's interpretation which makes the movie that more moving and special.Note 2 : Fans of Hollywood type action movies please abstain.
7 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- A great movie! (9/10), 1 November 2002 Author: riccardo72 from West Lafayette, IN, USA
If you are after car chasings and unreal fight/action scenes, don't even consider reading further and even less watching this movie.This movie is about human psychology and love. These characters are tormented by a feeling of inadequacy, by strong unresolved love, and deep affection. It's a modern greek tragedy. It reminds us of the real human nature, unlinear, never simple. Forget the white/black type of hollywood movies. The real world is not like that. We are not just good, we are not just bad, we can be strong and weak at the same time. This movie manages to remind us this in the context of a difficult love story accompanied by one of the most beautiful scores ever.The whole movie seems to have been written and built around this sad, unusual and beautiful music by Ravel (piano sonata for trio).If you are an intelligent person you'll love the poetry and soft touch of this movie.
8 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :- Happy Ending?, 6 August 2004 Author: allirish from New York
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
* Spoiler*I must comment on the conclusion one viewer drew that Maxim and Camille lived happily after. Just one look at Beart's exquisite face at the end tells you that happy is one thing she isn't. And Maxim says that Camille 'comes and goes...', seemingly resigned but certainly not happy himself. There are so many ways to interpret the ending, again demonstrating Sautet's brilliant directing and the nuances in Beart's and Auteuil's performances. Is she moving on with her life, leaving him behind? Are they both imprisoned within different walls of glass, unable to reach each other? Poignant, multi-layered, French film at its best!
9 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :- Everything that is wonderful about French cinema, 5 September 2000 Author: simon-118 from London
No-one can portray emotion in cinema as well as the French, as this movie proves. Auteil is wonderful as the stoic and enigmatic central figure, a man of few words and even fewer facial expressions who is both fascinating and exasperating. Emmanuel Beart is surely one of the most beautiful figures to grace the screen; her eyes say all the things her words fail to. One of the many qualities to admire in this film is that what the characters do not say is more important that what they do, and rather than being vague and ambiguous, which is a polite way of often saying muddled and obscure in movies, everything is confidently conveyed through expressions and actions. This is a film that knows exactly how much to say and what about. There are some brilliantly subtle clues to Auteil's character. "Have you ever been in love?" Beart asks."probably," he replies and nothing more is said. yet despite it's casual nature we remember that comment and without any more help we conclude that this may be the real reason for his isolation now, a desperate attempt at self-preservation. The music is brilliantly chosen, and the camera draws things out of the frame naturally...Auteil touching Beart for the first time when crossing the road, the wonderful coffee shop scene, that slap from Maxim. There is also some excellent humour, especially in the argument between the old couple Auteil witnesses from outside their house. It is interesting to compare this film with Three Colours: Blue which I saw the same evening, a more explicit depiction of isolation, equally powerful through different methods.
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