La douleur
- 2017
- Tous publics
- 2h 7m
IMDb RATING
6.3/10
1.4K
YOUR RATING
Marguerite must navigate through the hardships of the Liberation after losing her husband and starting a relationship with the enemy during the War.Marguerite must navigate through the hardships of the Liberation after losing her husband and starting a relationship with the enemy during the War.Marguerite must navigate through the hardships of the Liberation after losing her husband and starting a relationship with the enemy during the War.
- Awards
- 15 nominations total
Barouch Rafiq
- Un déporté
- (as Baruch Rafic)
Featured reviews
On paper, this film is condemned and doomed to failure. A story about a writer (Marguerite Duras) and her internal dialogs about the waiting of her husband's return (member of the French resistance) could only be seen as something rather repellent. However, the fact that Emmanuel Finkiel delivers a heartbreaking film about this waiting is in itself astonishing and makes this film valuable, rare and beautiful for sure among the must see films' list of 2017.
So how come did Emmanuel Finkiel end up with such a good movie ? Well there are several ingridients of course , but one of the secrets leans on the fantastic actors the film features and the way the characters were written: Melanie Thierry as Marguerite Duras of course, way above all the rest, so unsettling and seductive, torned apart and brave, but also, quite surprinsgly Benoit Magimel (recently so deep and good actor in recent years) with a deep twisted role of a cop you never end up to decipher completely. All this is accompanied by a beautiful and genuine reconstruction of the ocuppied Paris back in the early forties and the creative camera inventions the director resorted to during the film actually allow to maintain the supense you would not have expected from such a movie by revealing little by little the diferent feelings Marguerite Duras (the writer) came through (specially her twisted feeling towards her lover and the husband she must wait). Thanks to all this we can comprehend the unexpected turns of the historical events through the eyes of a "resistante" (Marguerite Duras), we live the waiting, the environment, the mood o the people in the ocuppied Paris, the suffering of the people, the watershed of history when the fear suddenly changed sides, the political commitment that some people decided to have and the one that others decided to avoid at all cost, all this is perfectly pictured, illustrated, narrated described and depicted with a true authenticity that never bore us despite the theme of the film.
Melanie Thierry once again is just amazing (quite unfair not to give her the Cesar award for that utterringly good performance), we suffer with her, and never abandon her pain (the real title in French means pain). A great adaptation on screen and a very emotional moment . I recommend !
War causes pain in many ways. La douleur focuses on one that usually goes unnoticed. It is a character study of Marguerite, a woman waiting for her husband who has been arrested by the Germans and nobody knows what happened to him. Is he alive? Is he dead? The only thing she can do is torturously wait without having any clue. She desperately tries to get a French agent's help, but deep inside she knows it's a vain attempt.
The movie succeeds in creating the surreal feeling of "freezing time". Days are endlessly passing by and she isn't living, she is just a detached observer. This effect is done through the extremely slow narrative, Melanie Thierry's performance, the camera work (e.g. Many closeups, or the scene where she looks herself in the mirror, an outsider in her own life).
The movie succeeds in creating the surreal feeling of "freezing time". Days are endlessly passing by and she isn't living, she is just a detached observer. This effect is done through the extremely slow narrative, Melanie Thierry's performance, the camera work (e.g. Many closeups, or the scene where she looks herself in the mirror, an outsider in her own life).
SUM UP :
you read the book and liked it ? -> GO see the movie!
Not read or read and not liked? -> GO see another movie!
STORY The story is about a wife that has no information about the return of her husband that went to war. So she tries to find out what happend to him.
NOTHING BUT PAIN The film is full of pain, and is very slow, just l ike the book I heard. I would say that, while the crew might have done a great job turning the book into a move, the movie was not enjoyable: I go to movies to feel emotions, and I did not feel any but pain in this one. I had to leave the movie after 1H30 min because I was just losing my time.
RATING 4 because the cast was nice, and as said, the crew did a fine job given the book..
STORY The story is about a wife that has no information about the return of her husband that went to war. So she tries to find out what happend to him.
NOTHING BUT PAIN The film is full of pain, and is very slow, just l ike the book I heard. I would say that, while the crew might have done a great job turning the book into a move, the movie was not enjoyable: I go to movies to feel emotions, and I did not feel any but pain in this one. I had to leave the movie after 1H30 min because I was just losing my time.
RATING 4 because the cast was nice, and as said, the crew did a fine job given the book..
The book isn't an easy read, it feels like being trapped into the author's head: this can be a problem because entering another person's subjectivity is always tricky and a source of misunderstanding.
The movie suffers from the same problem and this is why I didn't really like it. The voice over is extremely pervasive (we're bordering audiobook territory here) while nothing, or almost nothing, happens on screen.
In short, watching this movie without having read the book would be a pointless experience imho.
The movie suffers from the same problem and this is why I didn't really like it. The voice over is extremely pervasive (we're bordering audiobook territory here) while nothing, or almost nothing, happens on screen.
In short, watching this movie without having read the book would be a pointless experience imho.
I've watched some rubbish/flawed films and have found something to help me work around whatever was wrong with them. This film had nothing. It was slow, and boring. The characters weren't interesting me and I didn't like the cinematography. The overall look of the film was drab and grey.
Did you know
- TriviaOfficial submission of France for the 'Best Foreign Language Film' category of the 91st Academy Awards in 2019, but was not nominated.
- ConnectionsReferences Le dictateur (1940)
- SoundtracksLENTO E DESERTO
extrait du "CONCERTO POUR PIANO ET ORCHESTRE" Ligeti Project
Composed by György Ligeti
© Schott Music GmbH Co KG
(p) 2001 Teldec Classics, a Warner Music UK Division
Avec l'autorisation d'Alphonse Leduc Editions Musicales et Warner Music France, A Warner Music group Company.
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- Memoir of War
- Filming locations
- Paris, France(setting of most of the action)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- €6,563,754 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $103,636
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $11,653
- Aug 19, 2018
- Gross worldwide
- $2,980,982
- Runtime
- 2h 7m(127 min)
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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