Gabrielle is a 2005 French film directed by Patrice Chéreau. It is a screen adaptation of Joseph Conrad's short story The Return.

Gabrielle
Promotional movie poster
Directed byPatrice Chéreau
Screenplay byPatrice Chéreau
Anne-Louise Trividic
Based onThe Return
by Joseph Conrad
Produced byJoseph Strub
Serge Catoire
Ferdinanda Frangipane
StarringIsabelle Huppert
Pascal Greggory
Claudia Coli
CinematographyÉric Gautier
Music byFabio Vacchi
Distributed byIFC First Take (U.S.)
Release date
  • 28 September 2005 (2005-09-28)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
Box office$2,775,311[1]

Plot

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Jean Harvey and his wife Gabrielle are renowned within Paris's haute bourgeoisie for the salons they host each Thursday evening.

Jean and Gabrielle live a comfortable yet regimented life in a well-appointed Paris mansion, assisted by a retinue of devoted servants. Yet their marriage is more of a contract than a relationship. Jean confides to the audience that he loves Gabrielle "as a collector loves his most prized object."

On their 10th anniversary, Jean comes home to find a note from Gabrielle in which she writes that within the hour she will have left to meet her lover.

Jean spends several minutes digesting the meaning of the note. Gabrielle returns shortly, though, and Jean and Gabrielle reflect on their marriage for the remainder of the film.

Notes

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Gabrielle opened in the United States on 14 July 2006 at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and the IFC Center in Manhattan. It was also available that weekend to many home cable subscribers throughout the U.S. via video on demand through IFC. Subsequent release dates were July 28, 2006 in Boston and 4 August 2006 in Los Angeles.

Cast

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Reception

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On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Gabrielle holds an approval rating of 74%, based on 54 reviews, and an average rating of 6.7/10. Its consensus reads, "Patrice Chéreau's exquisite rendering of Joseph Conrad's The Return brings underlying passions to surface in a long-suffering marriage".[2] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "Generally favorable reviews".[3] Gabrielle was placed at 89 on Slant Magazine's best films of the 2000s.[4]

Accolades

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Gabrielle". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  2. ^ "Gabrielle (2005)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  3. ^ "Gabrielle". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  4. ^ "Best of the Aughts: Film". Slant Magazine. 7 February 2010. p. 2.
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