“Gabrielle”

“I love her as a collector loves his most prized item,” Jean
Hervey says of his titular wife in French filmmaker
Patrice Chereau’sGabrielle, and he
considers it high praise indeed. But that’s not love. That’s…something else.
Pride, maybe? Control? Jean isn’t the first person to
confuse these sentiments, and his comfortably structured existence will come
undone when he realizes that possessions can’t love you back.

Based on a Joseph Conrad novella called “The Return,” Gabrielle takes place in early 20th
century Paris
and drops in on Jean (frequent Chéreau collaborator Pascal
Greggory) and Gabrielle (Isabelle Huppert, I Heart Huckabees)
during one of the lavish gatherings they host every Thursday in their
impeccably appointed home. To their artsy acquaintances the wealthy Herveys seem the picture of contentment. Jean will soon receive a farewell letter from his wife telling him
otherwise, and Chéreau shoots the concerned man
approaching the missive as if he can influence its foregone contents. Jean is
distraught, angry, and shocked, feelings that are ramped up when Gabrielle
unexpectedly returns.

“That other life is too demanding,” Gabrielle says, and
she’s definitely referring to amour.
She’s surprised by Jean’s reaction; she wouldn’t have returned if she thought
he cared. But that’s still not evidence of Jean’s love. That’s pure ego. He
could have endured nobly if she had left, but now the gossips will learn that
he took her back, and he’ll appear weak. Throughout the balance of the film
Gabrielle and Jean will move through their sumptuously sterile surroundings,
him raging at her as she remains distant, only expressing herself during
heartbreaking conversation with her maid. But Jean told us at the outset how
proud he was of Gabrielle’s impassivity.

Nothing more can be said about La Huppert and her masterful
acting; she’s one of the finest actresses in the world, and while Gabrielle may
not be the showiest of roles, she conveys much with just a twitch of the mouth
or a glacial gaze. As Jean, a man to whom emotions are supposedly contemptible,
Greggory runs the gamut of them, Jean’s stiff upper
lip ultimately failing him during their final salon.

Aficionados of world cinema are familiar with the work of Chéreau. He’s made films such as 1994’s Queen Margot and 1998’s Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train and
appeared in movies like Michael Mann’s Last
of the Mohicans (one of my all-time favorites). For a quiet chamber piece
— it would make a fine play — Gabrielle is startlingly stylish. Shifts from black-and-white to color that seem to
correspond to the presence or absence of passion, swirling camerawork, and
words occasionally filling the screen (“STAY!”) make for a satisfying cinematic
experience, even in one of those films where the characters are so repressed
that at times it seems as though you’re suffering for them.

In Alex Karpovsky’s clever mockumentaryThe
Hole Story, Karpovsky travels to Minnesota, the Land of
10,000 Lakes, to find out why one of them has a giant hole in the ice despite
sub-freezing temperatures. He’s putting together a pilot called “Provincial
Puzzlers” about small-town phenomena, but when he shows up in Brainerd, MN,
the hole has completely frozen over. This should deter Karpovsky,
but he’s hell-bent on ditching his dead-end job editing karaoke videos. The Hole Story chronicles the stubborn Karpovsky’s efforts to complete the project without his
star chasm, attempting to harness the power of illusion, the sun, and in one
great scene, the sledgehammer.

The locals don’t know what to make of the filmmaker —
there’s a lot of uncomfortable silences and blinking — and Karpovsky perseveres with the smoky, numbing help of his
pal Jack Daniels, resulting in some drunkenly droll midnight confessions. The Hole Story strains credibility once Karpovsky winds up in a mental hospital with the camera
continuing to roll, but as Karpovsky’s
resourcefulness grows increasingly desperate, it also gets funnier. Karpovsky will be at the Dryden on Saturday, August 26, to
present his film. Ask him if he still has all his fingers and toes after that
icy hop into NorthLongLake.

And don’t forget
about thenext installment of
the Emerging Filmmakers Series, unspooling at 9:15 p.m. on Monday, August 28, at the Little. Since the fall of 2003 the monthly series has
showcased short films shot in New
YorkState
by filmmakers who reside here. Six shorts will be featured this month, four of
them by Rochester
artists. Visit the Little’s website at www.little-theatre.com to learn more
about the Emerging Filmmakers Series, including instructions for submitting
your own tiny opus.

Gabrielle (NR), directed by Patrice Chéreau,
opens Friday, August 25, at Little Theatres | The Hole Story (R),
directed by visiting guest artist Alex Karpovsky,
shows at 8 p.m. on Saturday, August 26, at the George Eastman House’s Dryden
Theatre.

This article appears in Aug 23-29, 2006.