The long slow, empty and slightly wobbly panning opening title shot sets the tone for the next 1.5 hours. Emptiness, silence, voids. Stylistically coherent throughout, the audience must nonetheless try to fill this emptiness with imagination. Impressive and captivating as Isabelle Huppert is, she is not enough to fill this film. The most disappointing void is in the writing: there is very little story here, very restrained emotion overall and the characters don't develop or reveal much. Mizoguchi in particular is so wooden and closed throughout, that it is difficult to see why Sidonie would fall for him. Clearly her imagination filled the emptiness.
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