Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
Petites Coupures (2002)
Director: Pascal Bonitzer
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Journalist Bruno (Auteuil) is swithering between a wavering wife (Devos) and a much younger girlfriend (Sagnier), and politically undecided after the collapse of communism. Realising a break in routine is required, he answers a call for help from his uncle (Yanne), which takes him to the countryside near Grenoble. Charged with delivering a letter to the old man's romantic rival, he's soon deep into uncharted territory and a disorienting encounter with the volatile Béatrice (Scott Thomas). All this resolves itself into a narrative homily about needing to lose yourself in order to find your way again, but you get the feeling that Bonitzer (former Cahiers du Cinéma editor and frequent Rivette collaborator) is less interested in the destination than the uncertainties of the journey. His third feature is strongest on tantalising playfulness, as a Hitchcockian MacGuffin (what's in the letter?) leaves an already reeling Auteuil up a mountain, in a forest, facing a house of strangers. With John Scott's Herrmann-esque music saturating the proceedings in romantic unease, the film subtly massages expectations, before the leading man's rather too practised little-boy-lost routine is supplanted by the brittle intensity Scott Thomas brings to her role as a wayward spouse thrown by her own unruly emotions. And yet, while the film's keenly aware of the transient anxieties and longings that shape experience, we never really grasp the characters' feelings for ourselves. As an acting display it impresses - but academically.Author: TJ
Cast & crew
Director: Pascal Bonitzer
Producer: Jean-Michel Rey, Philippe Liégeois
Cast: Daniel Auteuil, Kristin Scott Thomas, Pascale Bussières, Ludivine Sagnier, Catherine Mouchet, Emmanuelle Devos, Hanns Zischler, Jean Yann, Aladin Reibel, Jérémie Lippman, Bettina Kee full cast
Duration: 96 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
To the letter
Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.
Mind over matter
David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.
Fool's gold
Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.
We are the championed
Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."
A history of violence
Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.
True romantic
James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.
Playing in the dark
MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.
Junk bonds
Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.
What do you think?
Post your review now