A Separação

The aptly titled film "The Separation" scrutinizes the disintegration of the relationship between a couple (Huppert & Auteuil). That's it...no more, no less. Superbly acted by two of France's finest at the top of their game, the film has little going for it making it a fringe watch for foreign or French cinema buffs. Not recommended for general consumption. (B-)

A sober exploration of the disintegration (in mid-course apparently) of a relationship whose breach is spurred by selfishness and a callous disregard for "the other" and a child. Such disregard then leads to betrayal, devastation (of the betrayed), indecision and disorientation of the betrayed---and the death of the relationship and of reality as it was understood beforehand. The betrayed is left with no longer certain of what was ever real, and what can ever be real again with any degree of certainty. Ultimately, one understands why Dantes 9th and lowest circle of hell belong to those who betrayed their ultimate commitments. Watch the film. If you haven't been "there," you will feel it indirectly. If you have been "there," you will live it over again and find some degree of resonance and solidarity with Pierre, who is lost in so many ways at the film's end.....and can't even find his way "home." After all, Home" is gone forever.

In Paris, Pierre (Daniel Auteuil) and Anne (Isabelle Huppert) have been living together for a couple of years and they have the eighteen-month son Loulou (Louis Vincent), who stays with the nanny Laurence (Laurence Lerel) during the day while they work. Their best friends are the couple Victor (Jérôme Deschamps) and Claire (Karin Viard), who also are not married but live together.

Out of the blue, Pierre feels Anne distant from him and soon she discloses that she is in love with another man. Pierre seems to accept her affair but their relationship goes downhill, and Pierre becomes violent with her.

"La Séparation" is the most realistic and mature film about the end of a relationship, with the sequential phases of the separation process of a couple. The viewer does not need to have self-experience to understand, since he or she might have witnessed this type of process with friends of them. Daniel Auteuil is perfect in the role of Pierre and the bitch Anne is tailored for the magnificent actress Isabelle Huppert.

The conclusion is unexpected, but sometimes it may happen when the couple has just divorced. It is not totally clear or conclusive what Anne may expect from Pierre after her betrayal and bad treatment, but if Pierre accepts to return to her, their relationship will probably not last for a long period. In their first fight, they will split again and will not be friends anymore. This great film does not age and seems to be better and better each time the viewer sees it. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Separação" ("The Separation")

Note: The first time I saw this film was on 23 April 2000.

On 16 February 2017, I saw this film again. Would Anne really have a lover?

La Separation makes you realize the value of true acting ability. Danilel Auteuil & Isabelle Huppert give a masterclass. I never thought that I'd be glad Juliette Binoche didn't turn up for work. The story has all the makings of a soap opera, but the thing that lifts this film is the simply marvelous acting. In other hands I think this movie would slip quietly onto the French equivalent of the Lifetime channel. There are no silences. In this movie one look speaks a thousand words. I struggle to think of any other movie where I have been so entranced by the pure acting of the male and female leads. More emotionally draining than Casablanca. This is a real weepy. Why? Because the acting makes you live the pain.

This disturbing film directed by Christian Vincent has one of Daniel Auteuil's best and most versatile performances. His 'partner', played with icy intensity by Isabelle Huppert, not only has a sadistic streak, but is wholly self-absorbed. She eyes Auteuil as he suffers because of her callous infidelity with the detachment of an abortionist crushing the head of an infant who has dared to scream after supposedly being 'disposed of' from the womb. Auteuil is at his wits' end, raging, cursing, hugging her, crying, discussing it helplessly with his friends, and the eye at the centre of the storm is the imperturbable Huppert, whose glassy stare and frozen visage are as relentless as a harpy. One puzzle: why does Auteuil go around unshaven all the time looking like a vagabond? So does his best friend. Is this chic? Looks a mess to me! Maybe Huppert has given up on trying to persuade him to shave and hates having her face scratched? Although she is the kind of character who would have pulled the wings off flies as a child, Auteuil's charm does not wholly compensate for his defiantly scruffy appearance, and as a tidy gal, that must get up her nose. This gut-wrenching story of the destruction of a relationship is from a novel, and with a screenplay by the author Dan Franck, who wrote the brilliant 1998 book 'Bohemes' ('Bohemian Paris', Grove Press, New York, 2001), perhaps the best survey of the Montmartre and Montparnasse days ever written. Let's hope it is not autobiographical, as if so, he must still be suffering. However, the detail is so precise, I fear it might all be true. There is a fine performance also by Laurent Lerel, as an au pair girl who loves Autueil from afar, and wishes to comfort him in his distress, but he never notices her. What a sad, sad tale.