Contains spoilers! Well this is a very odd little movie, and one that has a lot of similarities to another movie I saw (and reviewed) recently, the "Kate Winslet" version of "Mildred Pierce". Both movies are based on novels of no great distinction that should have otherwise been relegated to the pulping machines. Inexplicably this is the second film version to be made of both novels. Since both novels are now quite old the latest movie renditions are now period pieces, and that seems to be the only possible interest to a viewer and rationale for making a film which if not deep is at least "beautiful". Both movies feature woman protagonists of low/no charisma, yet both are played by actresses of considerable talent and acclaim. Both actresses are called upon to display absolutely none of the skills for which they are noted, producing what is probably the nadir in both actresses portfolios.The movie opens with a breathless and hopelessly overacted sequence involving two young girls, and we gather there is a special bond between them, possibly to the extent of lesbianism. For reasons which are unclear one of them not only shoots a bird but considers it necessary to also wring its neck. This scene is apparently significant because it is reprised later in the movie. The dialog implies that it is intended that one girl's sister will in the not too distant future marry the other girl. We then abruptly cut to this predicted courtship but, at least to my surprise, the "girl" now looks about 40 and the brother/fiancé looks about 50. In the intervening 20 years since the introductory sequence the girl seems to have morphed from a flighty, babbling youth to a middle age woman with all the warmth and passion of a sack of spuds. The girl/woman and the brother duly marry not out of love but out of duty to their families and their mutual business interests, and the marriage is consummated with the girl acting like the afore-mentioned sack of spuds. Meanwhile the husband's sister has found the real deal, or so she thinks, she has fallen head over heels in love with a guy who sails a nice boat but who unfortunately does not pass muster in the social stakes. The sister's family lock her away in the time honored tradition of discouraging unsuitable suitors, and her old friend (her brother's wife – are you following all this...?) is called upon to encourage her lover to desist from the relationship. As it happens the "lover" is just a big scumbag who doesn't care about the girl at all. He is a "free spirit", a liberal, an avantgarde who quotes poetry and philosophy, the world is his oyster, he was just having a bit of fun and no one is going to tie him down, he is off to Paris. All this talk of freedom ignites a little spark in the brother's unfulfilled wife and she goes off into a little fantasy world which seems to suggest that she might shack up with this neer do well. But all this comes to nothing, that little thread peters out and goes nowhere. The wife has a baby she doesn't like, she tries to poison her husband and she may or may not have had a hand in burning down a good part of their combined pine plantation. She moons about a lot not looking very happy and she doesn't seem to know what she wants. Eventually her long suffering husband agrees to let her go to Paris to start a new life. In the final scene she still doesn't know what she wants, she doesn't know why she tried to poison her husband, in fact she doesn't really know anything. She is really a complete waste of space.Was there a message here? Was this novel/movie supposed to be some sort of comment on the role of women and their suppression by men and society? Was it supposed to be a celebration of liberation? A triumph of passion over societal expectations? Should we care about this woman, someone of zero passion, drive or warmth, or about her not very likable husband? What happened to the only interesting character in the story, the husband's sister? Or to her baby? Why were so many story threads started only to be abandoned? Why did they take a talented and attractive actress like Audry Tatou and made her look so ugly, boring and stupid? All these questions and more.All in all, much ado about nothing.

I found this movie on Netflix streaming movies. It is in French with English subtitles. I speak a bit of French, but man generic French is so quick that I could barely understand what they were saying, so the subtitles are important.I became a big Audrey Tautou fan when I saw "Amelie" the first time. Since then I have seen a total of six of her movies, she is always good, as she is here.It is set in the 1920s France, Audrey Tautou is Thérèse Larroque, in a family that owns some property laden with pine forests. This becomes a significant fact during the movie, as she gets married to a man who also owns land with pine forests and together their pine forest wealth will be great. But it also becomes a threat when, during a period of drought, a forest fire threatens their holdings. Almost as a ritual rather than a love affair Thérèse marries an older man, fine actor Gilles Lellouche as Bernard Desqueyroux. He is a nice man, reasonably handsome, loves his hunting, and sees Thérèse mostly as a way to have a family. And hopefully a son to carry on the family name. But there never was any passion in their relationship.The movie, as titled, is about Thérèse, her unhappiness and feeling trapped in the marriage. Her husband has some symptoms which require medication, and he is prescribed some sort of arsenic drops, only three a day with water. But soon Thérèse sees this as an opportunity, maybe a few more drops each day will do the trick. Of course he gets ill but recovers, her ruse is exposed and she even has to defend herself in court, with the cooperation of her husband. But their relationship, whatever there was of it, is badly damaged. Thérèse has a daughter, the baby is virtually taken away from her by family members, and seems to be growing up without even realizing Thérèse is her mother. Thérèse seems only mildly upset by that development, if at all. Seems maybe she wasn't cut out to be a wife or a mother!In the very last scene, in the city as Bernard tells her goodbye (pronouncing her name 'tezz') then we see her walking among all the people in the street, a wry smile on her face. Was she thinking, "All-in-all that worked out pretty well. Now I can start my life." An excellent character study, Tautou is great.

The air-headed Audrey Tautou acquires a brain in this adaptation of a Francois Mauriac novel. She is heiress of thousands of acres of Aquitaine, including a huge stand of timber and miles of sandy beaches, and marries the man next door, who owns almost as much. She has a dreamy girl-friend (hubby's sister) who falls in love and is locked up for it, to marry the man of her family's choice. In short, Audrey is living in an open prison and decides to off her husband, who regularly takes four drops of arsenic for his heart condition. She forges a prescription and radically ups his dose until he nearly dies. The family sticks together and backs up her phony story, then locks her away in a tatty loft bedroom, deprived for ever of her infant daughter. Only at the end of nearly two hours does her husband announce that she is to be set free. She announces that she will move to a hotel in Paris and live her own life. On that happy note, the film ends, but not before we have lived through her hellish existence for a little too long. Recommended for Tautou's performance.

French screenwriter, producer and director Claude Miller's fifteenth and final feature film which he co-wrote with French screenwriter Natalie Carter, is an adaptation of a novel from 1927 by French author and playwright François Mauriac (1895-1970) and a remake of a French film from 1962 by French filmmaker Georges Franju (1912-1987). It premiered Out of competition at the 65th Cannes International Film Festival in 2012, was screened in the Special Presentations section at the 37th Toronto International Film Festival in 2012, was shot on locations in France and is a French production which was produced by producer Yves Marmion. It tells the story about a woman named Thérèse Desqueyroux who lives in a Provencal village in France with her father and her grandmother. Thérèse has a close and sister-like relationship with a girl named Anne de la Trave who lives in a mansion with her mother and brother named Bernard who is a hunter and a landowner, but after Thérèse marries Bernard and her friend meets a man named Jean Azevedo they don't get to see each other as much as before and Thérèse begins to regard her marriage as conventional and as a prison of duties where she no longer recognizes herself.Distinctly and brilliantly directed by French filmmaker Claude Miller (1942-2012), this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated by the main character and mostly from her point of view, draws a mindful and tangible portrayal of a cultured French woman who after choosing to become a wife and realizing what it entails is so plagued by her decision and bored by her Catholic husband that she commits a crucial act. While notable for its naturalistic and atmospheric milieu depictions, sterling cinematography by French cinematographer Gérard De Battista, production design by production designer Laurence Brenguier, costume design by French costume designer Jacqueline Bouchard and use of sound and light, this dialog-driven, monologue-driven and narrative-driven story about an independent-minded woman who discovers her true identity after becoming a someone in a bourgeoisie society depicts a multifaceted study of character and contains an efficient instrumental score.This internally dramatic, non-judgmental, rhythmic, reflective and romantic drama which is set in Argelouse in the Landes department in Southwestern France during the 1920s in the aftermath of the First World War and where a young woman falls in love with a Jewish man whom her family prevents her from seeing as they have a man from another family named Deguihelm in mind for her, and her closest friend whom has married her brother is suffocating in her matrimony, is impelled and reinforced by its fragmented narrative structure, substantial character development, subtle continuity, timely use of music, undertones of mystery and the distinguished acting performances by French actress Audrey Tautou, French actor, screenwriter and director Gilles Lellouche and French actress Anaïs Demoustier. A cinematographic, nuanced, eloquent and lyrical period piece which honors the art of storytelling in cinema.