Gabrielle

Gabrielle is Patrice Chéreau’s stunning adaptation of the short story “The Return” by Joseph Conrad. Recreating turn-of-the-century France with superb attention to detail, Chéreau casts an unrelenting gaze on the marital breakdown that overwhelms a middle-aged bourgeois couple, played with chilling precision by Isabelle Huppert and Pascal Greggory. As wealthy Parisian Mr. Hervey (Greggory) descends from a train into the teeming bustle of the city. While on his way home, he reflects on the sturdiness and success of his life and the fortress of security he has built around himself. It is not long before his self-satisfaction is rudely shattered when he discovers a letter from his wife, Gabrielle (Huppert), waiting for him on his sideboard. The contents of the message will crumble that security and plunge him into newfound feelings of vulnerability, abandonment and betrayal. The couple soon finds themselves engaged in a parry-and-thrust of emotions that change mid-sentence and stretch their ability to function and live in the same house.