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Gilles' Wife

2004, Movie, NR, 106 mins

Gilles' Wife: Review

GILLES' WIFE
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Set in provincial 1930s France and told in the poetic-realist style of such period masters as Marcel Pagnol and Jean Renoir, Frédéric Fonteyne's follow-up to his acclaimed debut, AN AFFAIR OF LOVE, is a deeply emotional melodrama about one country wife's determination to hold on to her adulterous husband. Elisa (Emmanuelle Devos) and husband Gilles (Clovis Cornillac), a steel worker at a nearby mill, appear to a happy couple: They're raising two beautiful twin girls, Elisa is again pregnant, and though she remains passive in the manner of a good wife of the period (particularly when it comes to sex) she's obviously content. As summer turns to fall, however, Elisa begins having troubling thoughts about Gilles and worries that he spends his evenings in the arms of another woman. Worse, she suspects that Gilles' mistress is none other than her beautiful younger sister, Victorine (Laura Smet), who often visits their house to help with the girls. Elisa at first tries to keep her misery to herself, but after an embarrassing incident at a local fair during which Gilles attacks a man he thinks is getting too familiar with his sister-in-law, Elisa quietly confronts him. Gilles makes no effort to hide the fact that he's in love with Victorine and tells Elisa he may never get over it. Hoping to hold onto Gilles until his infatuation blows over, she says nothing and even goes so far as to help him keep tabs on Victorine by following her around the village. Interfamily betrayal of this kind now regularly ends in a smack-down on the Jerry Springer Show, but Fonteyne tells this sad, ultimately tragic tale mostly through sidelong glances and crestfallen looks, at which Devos is marvelously adept. But while Lars von Trier's long-suffering heroines — whom Elisa resembles in her willingness to indulge her husband's sexual obsession — achieve nobility through their agony, Elisa finds none, particularly when it comes to the church. In one subtle but powerful scene, Elisa's prayers for strength and guidance are met with the empty stares of broken plaster saints and the cold indifference of her parish priest. Cornillac is excellent as the emotionally immature Gilles, but this is Devos' show: She has a face as expressive as any melodrama queen from Hollywood's golden age, and for anyone who's yet to experience the power of this singular performer, this is an excellent place to start. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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