metalluk's Full Review: Coeur En Hiver (A Heart in Winter)
Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.
Un Coeur en Hiver (“A Heart in Winter”) is an exceptionally subtle and intelligent story built on the familiar geometry of the love triangle. This, however, is a love triangle in which only two of the three characters are playing the game in accord with the usual rules of romantic entanglements. The third participant has a degree of emotional reserve that parallels the film’s title, “A Heart in Winter.” This film approaches the subject of love in a distinctly insightful manner that reflects the differences that exist among us in capacity for emotions. The three principals deliver beautifully nuanced and flawless performances that make this film highly satisfying. Throw in the music of French composer Maurice Ravel, and you’ve got the recipe for a sumptuous film.
Historical Background: Claude Sautet was born on February 24th, 1924 in Montrouge, France, near Paris. His parents were working class. Claude worked as a social worker and music critic before studying film. Before reaching the vaunted plateau of director, he first worked as a writer and an assistant director. His debut film was Bonjour Sourire in 1955, but international success eluded him until 1969 when he directed Les Choses de la Vie (“The Things of Life”), starring Michel Piccoli. He followed that success with Max et les Férrailleurs (1970), again starring Piccoli, and Cesar and Rosalie (1972), starring Romy Schneider. His next film, Vincent, François, Paul . . . Et les Autres (1974), boasted something of an all-star cast that included Michel Piccoli, Yves Montand, Gérard Depardieu, and Stéphane Audran. Mado (1976), which followed also received a lot of positive response from critics. His next film, Une Histoire Simple (1978) received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film and also earned Schneider a César as best actress. Sautet made three films during the 1980’s but they were generally less substantial than his earlier work. In 1992, however, he produced what many regard as his finest film, Un Coeur en Hiver. This film was successful both critically and at the box-office. During the 1990’s, Sautet also kept busy writing scripts for other directors. Sautet’s final film, Nelly and M. Arnaud came in 1995, five years before his death from cancer in 2000. His last film won two César Awards, including one for Sautet for Best Director, a fitting capstone to a worthy career.
Sautet’s films revolve around the foibles of the middle class and have a sophistication, intelligence, and warmth that is seldom matched. Sautet is known for his ability to explore human relationships in all of their complexities and intimate details rather than dealing in routine plot clichés. Un Coeur en Hiver is an excellent example, in that respect, taking the standard idea of a love triangle and imbuing it with a genuine emotional honesty and depth.
The Story: Stephane (Daniel Auteuil) is a expert violin craftsman, repairing priceless instruments for the top French violinists. He has a special sensitivity to the sound of each violin. Often times, he can tell what particular element needs repair merely by listening to the instrument being played for a short time by its owner. He is utterly dedicated to his profession, having little social life and few close friends. His best friend is Helene (Elizabeth Bourgine), owner of a nearby bookstore, but their relationship is entirely Platonic. Stephane works for Maxime (Andre Dussolier) and the two have a superb working relationship. For certain steps in the violin assembly process, Stephane requires an extra pair of hands. When he calls to Maxime for his help, Maxime knows what is needed without even being asked.
In contrast to Stephane, Maxime is personable and extroverted. Though married, he has been having love affairs for years and shares the details with Stephane, who lives vicariously, to some extent, through Maxime’s social life. Maxime and Stephane spend little time together outside of their instrument shop, though they do play racket ball together and share lunches at the local bistro. Maxime usually wins, but Stephane doesn’t mind since Maxime enjoys winning so much. Stephane and Maxime make an excellent business duo because their personalities are complementary. Maxime provides the social skills that are so important for winning customers in this kind of business while Stephane provides the surgeon’s touch required for the delicate repair work.
Maxime’s latest affair has taken a more serious turn than his others. He has left his wife and plans to move in with his new paramour, Camille Kessler (Emmanuelle Béart). Camille is a beautiful and talented violinist, coming into her own, cutting her first recordings, and in demand on the concert circuit. Camille is also a customer for Maxime and Stephan’s business. Stephane is a little surprised that the relationship between Camille and Maxime has already advanced so far without his having heard about it from Maxime, since Maxime has never previously kept one of his affairs secret from Stephane. Stephane comments to Helene that his friend Maxime has been “touched by grace,” so obvious is the glow of Camille’s effect on him.
Stephane and Maxime were both violinist themselves before giving up performance and turning to the instrument repair business. Neither was especially talented as a performer. Maxime never practiced hard enough and Stephane lacked the passionate nature and expressiveness necessary for high level musical performance. Camille, by contrast, is a superb violinist, both technically and by temperament. Though cool and collected on the surface, Camille burns with real passion inside. Camille is a bit dissatisfied with the sound of her instrument and brings it around to the shop of Maxime and Stephane. Stephane makes the necessary repair. Maxime and Stephane also each follow the careers of their clients, partly to hold on to their business. They attend the concerts, recitals, and recording sessions of their customers when they are in town. Camille is in the process of recording the Ravel Piano Trio (piano, violin, and cello). Stephane attends the recording sessions but Camille is repeatedly distracted by his presence, so he generously leaves.
Camille, Stephane, and Maxime have in common that all were taught at one time by the same violin teacher, Daniel Lachaume (Maurice Garrel), who is something of a mentor to all of them. He is elderly and in poor health, but he and his housekeeper, Mme. Amet (Myriam Boyer), have the entire group over for dinner along with some other guests. This turns out to be one of the key scenes for understanding the film. A bit of an argument ensues between Camille and one of the minor male characters about the nature of art. The man is something of an elistist and goes into the following tirade: “I can’t stand the way we call everything ‘art’ these days. Everything has equal value. Pop videos, graffiti. Piero della Francesca and, Ravel’s music played by our friend [pointing at Camille], even Mrs. Amet’s apple pie! We live in an era of pick-and-mix culture. We’ve lost all sense of judgment. I loathe this flabby consensus of opinion. I believe in mental vigilance. Do I sound pompous?” Lachaume replies, “In a world threatened by excess democracy, you voice the legitimate fears of the elite.” Camille chimes in, “I agree, things get muddled, but at least the art’s not just for an elite anymore. It’s still a privilege, but shared.” The man responds, “No, Camille, it’s worse! Herds of people drifting around art galleries.” She replies, “But, if among the drifting herd one person sees a painting that moves him, maybe changes his life, isn’t that good?” “That’s nothing new,” says the elitist. “I think it is,” retorts Camille. Now Stephane speaks up, “Basically you agree. You also talk about one sensitive person in a dull herd.” Camille takes offense at Stephane lumping her view in with that of the elitist. She then challenges Stephane to state his position on the issue of whether art is for all or for just the elite. He claims to have no view, however, saying, “No. I hear conflicting arguments, all valid.” Camille accuses him of being too cowardly to express his opinions. At this point, Camille and her roommate (and agent), Regine (Brigitte Catillon), have a very low opinion of Stephane.
Stephane suggests another improvement in the sound of Camille’s instrument. She is pleased with the change though she also wonders why he didn’t make it sooner. She is intrigued by his sensitivity to her instrument as well as the nuances of her performance. Camille and Stephane run into one another from time to time. At the shop, when Maxime is busy on the phone, Camille looks in on Stephane’s place of work and his adjacent bedroom. Later, during a recording session, Stephane shows up and Camille is strangely energized by his presence, playing the piece with an emotional intensity that she has rarely been able to muster in the past.
Gradually, Camille becomes more and more overt in pressing her feelings for Stephane but he becomes more and more reticent and inexpressive. Camille is intrigued by Stephane, believing that behind his shyness and awkwardness, he must have deeper feelings than those of the rather superficial Maxime. She assumes that he must have feelings for her but is repressing them. He denies being capable of love. She wants to break down his wall of resistance. He claims that he simply doesn’t have any such feelings. Camille becomes increasing obsessed with Stephane to the point of throwing herself at him. He cannot reciprocate or respond. She becomes angry, hurt, and befuddled, finally drinking herself into an intoxication to drown her despair at rejection. She confides her feelings for Stephane to Maxime, not wanting to be dishonest with Maxime. Maxime slaps Stephane, not so much out of jealousy as anger that Stephane has humiliated Camille. Stephane packs up his belongings, moves out, and opens his own business.
Themes: Judging another person's emotions is a tricky business altogether. We tend to assume that all of us have the same internal range of emotions and that whatever differences that exist on the surface are solely due to differences in openness of expression. Like every other facet of mental activity, emotional intensity varies from one person to another. The emotional thermostat, so to speak, is pegged at a higher setting for some people than for others. All of us should be grateful that such is the case. Do we really want a person with enough passion to sing a moving aria or blues number conducting our neurosurgery for example? Some roles in society are best carried out by people with emotions that are relatively subdued. In films, we most often encounter that kind of cool, calm, and collected personality in certain tough guy roles. Actors like Clint Eastwood and Robert De Niro are renowned for their capacity to play such parts convincingly. The Clint Eastwood type characters don’t come across as people who have merely learned to hide their emotions, but as people who are inherently calm even under circumstances that would cause most of us to crumble. There is no single psychologically optimum or right or wrong setting for emotionality. The differences simply exist. One might have a personal preference for people of either high emotionality or low emotionality, but such preferences are no more than a matter of personal taste. It is widely believed that some ethnic groups are collectively more or less emotional than others. Scandinavians are generally thought to be emotionally reserved while the nationalities of the Mediterranean are often considered to be more “hot-blooded.” How much of these differences between various ethnic groups is cultural and how much biological is an open question. Some of it might even be only stereotypes.
In addition to differences in inherent emotionality, two other factors also contribute to differences in emotional expressiveness. Some individuals are emotionally repressed, meaning that they have poor awareness of their internal emotional states. Emotional repression can have to do with guilt or shame or any other reason why awareness of one’s emotions would result in pain. Repression is sometimes psychologically unhealthy.
Then the third consideration with respect to emotionality is variations in overt emotional expressiveness, whether by facial expression, body language, or verbal expression. Some of us use more gestures when we speak or more verbal inflection while others are more constrained. Some of us talk openly about our feelings; others keep their feelings to themselves. The latter folks will generally be more effective as diplomats or poker players but the former group are often more pleasing as entertainers.
How do each of the three main characters in Un Coeur en Hiver stack up in the emotional domain. Maxime has an ease in his overt expressiveness that renders him popular and a natural kind of businessman. He puts people at ease and gains their confidence by his easy, outgoing manner. On the other hand, he seems to have little emotional depth. What you see is what you get with Maxime. He finds it relatively easy, for example, to betray his wife and abandon her for a younger, more beautiful mistress.
Camille’s emotional nature is aptly revealed by her old violin instructor, Lachaume. He tells Stephane, early in the film, that he remembers her as “a smooth, hard little girl who keeps one at a distance. But behind it you could feel a real temperament.” Camille, in other words, has a strong internal emotional life but limits the extent to which she reveals those emotions through outward expressiveness. Part of her love of music no doubt derives from the satisfaction of finding an outlet for overt expression of her emotions through her performances. Camille understands better than most others that one might lack surface emotional expressiveness but still possess strong interior feelings. When she encounters Stephane, she assumes that he is like herself: calm on the surface but seething underneath.
Stephane, however, just doesn’t have strong interior emotions. He possesses exceptional capacity for discrimination, but that’s different than emotionality. He has special ability to perceive any small imperfection in the sound of a violin. He also has enough musical insight into performance to recognize when Camille is playing a piece at an incorrect tempo. What he does not have, however, is the temperament to play music expressively himself. He gave up playing because he didn’t like the sound that he produced. At concerts, he is apparently less moved by the music than is Maxime. We also see in the dinner scene that he does not even become passionately involved with “positions” in a debate, because he lacks emotional investment in particular viewpoints. He says, “I hear conflicting arguments, all valid.” He tells Camille that he and Maxime are good partners but that he doesn’t consider Maxime “a friend.” He cannot feel love for Camille despite her beauty and her professions of love for him. While we might be tempted to feel sorry for Stephane and assume that he is missing something important in life, his lack of emotionality is probably part of what makes him so skilled as a surgeon of instruments. It is also what allows him to help his valued mentor die when no one else can muster the resolve. Furthermore, Stephane is valued as a person by several of the other characters: Helene, Maxime, Lachaume, as well as his apprentice. He may not be able to offer any of them love, but they value him for what he is: calm, observant, and meticulous.
I don’t agree with reviewers who suggest that Stephane is an “emotionally closed-off individual.” That phrase suggests emotional repression. Stephane says at one point that he has no history of traumas to offer as an explanation. Stephane has not shut himself off from his emotions, he simply is less emotional than the vast majority of people. It is simply who he is. Camille wants desperately, obsessively, to find his emotional core but there’s nothing there.
These three characters, therefore, provide a mechanism for considering the requirements for great musical performance. One element of performance is technical mastery. Without it, there can be no greatness of musicianship but it is not enough by itself. Great performance also requires passion – a depth of temperament that the performer can pour out into their music.
Production Values: The script for this film has a level of sophistication that one seldom encounters in movies – and certainly not in the vast majority of films that come out of Hollywood. Even among so-called “art films”, you’ll seldom encounter this kind of insight into psychological issues. On the surface, Un Coeur en Hiver is a romance – a romantic triangle – but underneath its pure psychodrama. We see three different kinds of people representing a sample from the range of possibilities for emotional life.
The musical segments of Un Coeur en Hiver are a rich addition to the film’s delights. Featuring the Ravel Piano Trio and Violin Sonatas, it is a rich and fitting musical background. The Trio becomes emblematic of the love triangle and the Sonatas of Camille’s developing romantic feelings toward Stephane. Camille’s romantic emotions are never entirely separate from her love of music. It is Stephane’s sensitivity to her instrument and her performance, as much as anything, that sparks her interest and convinces her that he is a man of rare sensitivity. Béart had never played the violin prior to making this film, but she was able to acquire the gestures and emotional expressiveness of a violinist to a remarkable extent. The actual violin performances were provided by concert violinist Jean-Jacques Kantorow.
Béart and Auteuil were lovers and living companions during the time that Un Coeur en Hiver was being made, so the rapport between the two is genuine. Béart is superlative and Dussollier won a César for best supporting actor, but Auteuil is the real story of this film. His subtlety and depth of expression invests his character with a delicate ambiguity that is truly shattering. The exceptionally beautiful Béart is possibly best known for the title role in Manon of the Spring (See Jean de Florette/Manon), but you may also have seen her in Mission: Impossible (1996) or Time Regained (1999). Dussollier’s resume includes Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me (1973), A Good Marriage (1982), and Melo (1986). Auteuil is one of the best French actors of all time. His other work includes Jean de Florette (1986), Manon of the Spring (1986), and Queen Margot (1994).
Bottom-Line:Un Coeur en Hiver won both a Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival and a César for Best Director for Sautet. This is an intelligent film that presents romance in the context of individual psychology. It is in French with English subtitles and has a running time of 100 minutes. It will leave you wanting more.
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