La Fidélité

Apart from the Isabelle Adjani shocker Possession, the films of French-based Polish maverick Zulawski have rarely crossed the Channel, and it's hard to give this elephantine romantic folly much of a welcome. Marceau never convinces as a photographer so consumed by her art she shoots everything, from piles of rubbish to ice hockey matches, while the rivalry between her eccentric publisher husband Greggory and smouldering fellow lensman Canet never achieves psychological credibility. Worse is the director's misguided confidence in his own artistry, mixing Marceau's artfully blurred prints with quoted chunks of Auden's poetry, John Woo-style shoot-outs, and a hideous piano score uncomfortably reminiscent of Richard Clayderman. (From La Princesse de Clèves by the Mme de La Fayette.