Main characters: brothers Grégoire and Louis Jeancourt. Louis is a rather unscrupulous TV personality and serial philanderer who confides to one of his paramours that Grégoire (who inherited their father's business) was always the preferred son. As the movie opens Grégoire is just out of jail where he spent a few months convicted of some unspecified financial crime. He is trying to come to terms with the turn his life has taken (Fabrice Luchini, an actor of many talents is a master at showing bewilderment on screen).
For the rest of the movie we mostly hear snatches of conversation (some almost subliminal). Some information is nonverbal: the brothers' father is on screen a few minutes and doesn't say much but projects a somewhat menacing image that makes one suspect he had a hand in Grégoire's troubles. (Grégoire declares he is "guilty but not responsible"). And there is a touch of cruelty (or revenge) in Louis using a diminished and listless Grégoire in one of his programs. The tale ia slow, deliberate and smoothly told, supported by excellent cinematography and acting, especially from Luchini, Isabelle Huppert (Grégoire's wife) and Vincent Lindon (Louis).
Director Benot Jacquot is sometimes niched as an inheritor of the Nouvelle Vague, on the basis of his early work as assistant director for Marguerite Duras and his first feature film with Anna Karina. Not a good fit. There is no "Jacquot movie" as the auteur theory requires; his filmography shows he is at home in, and can adapt his style to rather different genres.
For the rest of the movie we mostly hear snatches of conversation (some almost subliminal). Some information is nonverbal: the brothers' father is on screen a few minutes and doesn't say much but projects a somewhat menacing image that makes one suspect he had a hand in Grégoire's troubles. (Grégoire declares he is "guilty but not responsible"). And there is a touch of cruelty (or revenge) in Louis using a diminished and listless Grégoire in one of his programs. The tale ia slow, deliberate and smoothly told, supported by excellent cinematography and acting, especially from Luchini, Isabelle Huppert (Grégoire's wife) and Vincent Lindon (Louis).
Director Benot Jacquot is sometimes niched as an inheritor of the Nouvelle Vague, on the basis of his early work as assistant director for Marguerite Duras and his first feature film with Anna Karina. Not a good fit. There is no "Jacquot movie" as the auteur theory requires; his filmography shows he is at home in, and can adapt his style to rather different genres.