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Gilles' Wife (2004)

Gilles' Wife (2004)
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A woman struggles to hold on to the man she loves in this drama set in the 1930s from Belgian filmmaker Frédéric Fonteyne. Elisa (Emmanuelle Devos) is a housewife who is passionately devoted to her husband, Gilles (Clovis Cornillac), who works in a steel mill. Despite taking care of twin daughters and unfailingly seeing to the cooking and cleaning in their home, Elisa is as adoring of Gilles as she was on the day they met, and she eagerly tends to his ravenous sexual appetite. However, while most men would be thrilled to have a wife like Elisa, after years of marriage she begins to suspect that he might be having an affair with her sister Victorine (Laura Smet) while Elisa is pregnant with their third child. Elisa is too much in love with Gilles to leave him, but while she can accept her husband's faults, neither she nor her husband are certain if this is a casual fling or a love affair that will put an end to their relationship. La Femme de Gilles (aka Gilles' Wife) was adapted from a novel by Madeleine Bourdouxhe. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Starring:
Emmanuelle DevosClovis Cornillac, (more)
Director(s):
Frédéric Fonteyne
Format(s):
DVD
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Synopsis of Gilles' Wife

A woman struggles to hold on to the man she loves in this drama set in the 1930s from Belgian filmmaker Frédéric Fonteyne. Elisa (Emmanuelle Devos) is a housewife who is passionately devoted to her husband, Gilles (Clovis Cornillac), who works in a steel mill. Despite taking care of twin daughters and unfailingly seeing to the cooking and cleaning in their home, Elisa is as adoring of Gilles as she was on the day they met, and she eagerly tends to his ravenous sexual appetite. However, while most men would be thrilled to have a wife like Elisa, after years of marriage she begins to suspect that he might be having an affair with her sister Victorine (Laura Smet) while Elisa is pregnant with their third child. Elisa is too much in love with Gilles to leave him, but while she can accept her husband's faults, neither she nor her husband are certain if this is a casual fling or a love affair that will put an end to their relationship. La Femme de Gilles (aka Gilles' Wife) was adapted from a novel by Madeleine Bourdouxhe. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Theatrical Feature Running Time:
103 mins

Complete Cast of Gilles' Wife


Director(s):
Frédéric Fonteyne
Writer(s):
Philippe BlasbandMarion HänselFrédéric Fonteyne
Producer(s):
Patrick QuinetClaude Waringo
Categories:
Independent Films
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    Member Reviews
     
    Ruby D.

    Knew nothing about the film except that Emmanuelle Devos was in it. That was reason enough. I adored this movie. It's based on a French novel and as the director mentions in the making of documentary, instead of flashbacks he told Elisa's story in chron order, day by day and season by season. And this is Elisa's story from beginning to end. The camera work is sublime. Not just the heart-stopping shots but the stillness that is pure emotion, the thousand little moments. Big theme told in little moments. Devos is sublime as always and the other two leads are wonderful as well. Please nobody give away the end. You do viewers a serious injustice. Let everyone have the experience.

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    James V.

    Belgian filmmaker Frederick Fonteyne's GILLES' WIFE stars that luminous--and a little bizarre--actress Emmanuelle Devos ("Read My Lips," "Kings & Queen"), the interesting-and-not-much-seen-on-these-shores French actor Clovis Cornillac and Laura Smet (Chabrol's "The Bridesmaid"). More a character study (a damned good one) than anything else, the movie traces the time when a seemingly happy wife discovers her husband is cheating on her. The wife's reaction is as peculiar as it is believable, given the utterly convincing performances and the measured, assured direction/co-writing of M. Fonteyne. Without doing more than simply telling his story, the filmmaker addresses the role and place of man & woman (the film is set in small-town France shortly before WWII) and the perils of repression & displaced aggression. Fonteyne and his cinematographer Virginie Saint-Martin capture everything--from the seasons to the texture and feel of dirt, wood, rain, fabric and all else--with amazing clarity.

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    Max E.

    This movie is well acted and directed, but the lack of dialogue makes it too slow to enjoy as much as it should.

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