Avant l'hiver

This film has many fine elements, but suffers from the same ennui as the couple it portrays. I picked this up at my library, and knew immediately I had seen it before, but couldn't remember the end, and had to ride the "fast forward" to get through it! It didn't get better with a second viewing! A bored neurosurgeon "hits a rough patch" with his trophy wife, who sublimates her loneliness with her trophy home and garden! It reminds me of a flaccid remake of Haneke's "Cache", with Auteuil reprising his role as the stone-walling husband, who is smitten by a young Moroccan woman, who may be stalking him with roses instead of surveillance! Kristin Scott Thomas plays the long-suffering wife, instead of Juliette Binoche.

The film also has a couple of disparate elements that could easily have been cut, mainly Lucie's psychotic sister, and a Polish patient's Holocast survival story.

This is a fine distraction, if you have nothing else to watch!

Until the final 20 minutes I was watching this drawn by the two main characters. Kristen Scott Thomas and Daniel Auteuil are (as always) superb and their performances rather than the catalyst character, well played by, Leila Bekhti are what keep you engrossed. Scott Thomas and Auteuil are so subtle in their performance that you do feel the emotion, as your own, that which simmers and then manages to just about bubble in both their emotionally closeted worlds. These performances give the revelations revealed or hinted at in the final 20 minutes a lot more power and make what would have been another decent, and very watchable, film about a mature older man becoming obsessed by a young woman and his and his wives helplessness in doing anything about it after too many years wrapped in wealth and family comforts a rather very good film and one that leaves you thinking about consequences and the fallibility of love.

I saw this film at the Leiden film festival 2013 (LIFF). This could have been the umpteenth story about a middle aged man courting a younger woman, thereby endangering not only his marriage but also risking the health of his patients while slacking off his daily job as a surgeon. But luckily it is much more, due to some complications interwoven in the script that make it interesting nevertheless.

The daily package of red roses that are delivered throughout the running time of the film, seems important and thus are we eager all the time to know who is behind it. In the end we still wonder who is sending the roses, however, but it does not really matter in hindsight as many other sub-plots take over and keep us interested.

A possible minus point is the shallow role of the surgeon's wife. She has typically not enough on her hands other than waiting for her husband to come home. Her garden is her only daily occupation that keeps her from complete boredom, so it seems. I had assumed more initiative from her side, as she is obviously not the unlearned and meek kind of woman.

All in all, I can only moderately recommend this film. It is not a total failure, however, due to several sub-plots that keeps us interested. But that is all there is. This film ranked a moderate 26th place (out of 55) for the audience award.

Before the Winter Chill, a domestic drama from three-time writer / director Philippe Claudel (I've Loved You So Long), is immediately watchable for its leads, casting Daniel Auteuil and Kristin Scott Thomas as husband and wife in a story woven around their relationships with each other and those around them. The tale is reasonably diverting, and there is enough going on to keep the viewer engaged for the running time, but the material does not aim much higher than movie-of-the-week melodrama. This it does very well certainly, and Leïla Bekhti gives an affecting performance, but it's unlikely that you'll be raving about Avant l'hiver (the film's original title) to your friends and family. Enjoy 'Before the Winter Chill' for the central performances of Auteuil and Scott Thomas, then check out Guillaume Canet's 'Little White Lies' for some real Gallic fireworks.

small domestic scenes from a family's every day life. a meeting. and image of a profound crisis. a film who could have different definitions. thriller, crime, art film, psychological. but who remains admirable work for the impeccable performance of Kristin Scott Thomas and Daniel Auteuil. for the image of reality beyond the words. for a form of delicacy in define the events like a painting in water colors. a film about values and about fear to lost sense of life. a film who is really seductive not exactly for story but for details. the last scene is a good example. not different by many films with similar theme, it is really beautiful for the doses of drama and for the inspired use of silence. a film about a family. its crisis. and the hope.