tao902
Therese (Audrey Tautou) endures an unhappy marriage of convenience to an arrogant landowning neighbour. Her best friend, Anne, begins a passionate affair with a local man who is regarded by her family as unacceptable as he is not from such wealthy stock. When Therese learns that her husband's medicine contains arsenic she deliberately gives him overdoses that bring him close to death. Her life eventually deteriorates to the point where she commits suicide.Not a particularly engaging film. It was difficult to sympathise with the main character and it would have made more sense for the film to focus on Therese's best friend whose affair had been undermined.
joshua kit
"Therese" is a lovely looking film. The characters are all attractive, the scenery is pristine and engaging, and the colors really pop out at you. The cinematography is near top-notch.Ultimately, this is a very dark, and rather depressing story. Although arguably a victim of circumstance, the lead character comes across as rather self-absorbed and pathetic. I'm not sure if that was the intention or not, or even if there was an intention.The story and dialogue are sufficiently sophisticated to keep the viewer's attention. Overall a solid piece of work with good performances from the cast.If you liked this review, then please check out my other reviews. I try to review the movies which not many people see.
euroGary
'Thérèse Desqueyroux' is a French drama set in the 1920s in which Audrey Tautou, as the titular Thérèse, is content to play the iconoclast in her stuffy husband's family. But when her best friend (also her sister-in-law) describes her passionate relationship with an attractive young Portuguese man, Thérèse's emotions take a more sinister turn. My one complaint about this is that as Thérèse's husband (played by Gilles Lellouche) is such a central part of the plot it's a shame he is portrayed as such a one-dimensional duffer, ignorant of his wife's feelings in the most stereotypical way, but apart from that this is quite an enjoyable production, both in terms of the plot and the idyllic coastal scenery in which much of the film is set.
writers_reign
Clearly Audrey Tautao has now acquired sufficient clout to cherry pick her roles and equally clearly she is weary of playing adorable air-heads and, looking around for something with which to display her acting chops, came up with Francois Mauriac's old war-horse of a novel from 1927, already filmed half a century ago by Georges Franju. Claude Miller was a sick man - he actually died shortly after the shoot - and arguably in no position to say nay so here we are. No one is going to accuse this of being a laff riot in fact Tautao cracks a smile only on one - or possibly two - occasions otherwise it's all very sombre, long takes, longer faces, an attempt to make boredom photogenic, for yes, Therese and Madame Bovary are sisters under the skin albeit Therese has a tad more sand, and has also a little in common with Madeleine Smith, late of Edinburgh. Gilles Lellouche turns in yet another fine performance and the movie tests high on atmosphere but I doubt it will find its audience.
AD
