GeneSiskel
Beautifully photographed, scripted, and acted, The Widow of Saint-Pierre pits individual responsibility, redemption, and forgiveness against pettifogging, career-hugging minions of France's shaky Second Republic. Set in 1849, on a group of tiny islands off Newfoundland -- France's last bastion in North America -- the film draws us in with the earthiness of the locals, the stops-out independence of a military captain and his beautiful wife, and the quizzical behavior of a condemned man. It carries us to the conclusion on the strength of the drama, a familiar one of enlightened values endangered, of modernity oppressed. Although the costumes are lovely, it is not remotely a costume drama or a feminine romance. This is the Dreyfus Affair, a half century before the fact. Ten out of ten.
Claudio Carvalho
In 1849, in the Archipelago of Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, the drunken Ariel Neel Auguste (Emir Kusturica) and his partner Louis Ollivier (Reynald Bouchard) kill for a futile motive (to see if he is fat or just big) the fishing boat captain Coupard (Michel Daigle). Nell, who stabbed the victim, is sentenced to die with his head severed in the guillotine while Louis is sentenced to hard labor. During the transportation to the prison under the custody of Captain Jean (Daniel Auteuil), there is an accident and Louis dies. While spending his days in the cell waiting for the guillotine and the executioner, Neel is invited by the captain's wife Mrs. Pauline (Juliette Binoche) to help her in her garden and becomes her protégé. Later he has a process of rehabilitation helping the locals in minor works and becomes very popular in the island. When he saves the building Café du Nord and her owner from sinking in the sea, his popularity increases and nobody but the governor and politicians of the council wants his death. Neel marries Eleontine Jeanne-Marie, but sooner he is informed that the ship Marie Galante has just left Martinique bringing a guillotine. Now the Governor and politicians need to find an executioner in the population to execute the sentence."La Veuve de Saint-Pierre" is a beautiful dramatization of a story of rehabilitation and intolerance. I do not know whether this event is partially true or not – there are references in Internet to this story but in sites that I can not trust – but this movie is wonderful. The story and screenplay are engaging and very well written with powerful lines; the direction of Patrice Leconte and the performances are top- notch, with Juliette Binoche extremely beautiful and elegant as usual and showing a magnificent chemistry with Daniel Auteuil; the cinematography and costumes are wonderful. Based on my adjectives, it is unnecessary to say that I loved this movie. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "A Viúva de Saint-Pierre" ("The Widow of Saint-Pierre")
lord woodburry
Beinvenue a St Piere, a French outpost off the Eastern shore of Canada. On this small island, Ariel Neel Auguste (Emir Kusturica) awaits Madame La Guillotine for having killed a man in a drunken brawl. A burly brute of a man, Ariel's quick thinking saves an islander from certain death when a house being moved slides down a hill.Ariel's charm wins him the regard of Madame Pauline La (Juliette Binoche), wife of Captain Jean (Daniel Auteuil), the commander of the island's garrison. Islanders are divided on the issue of execution; most would like to save Ariel. Madame La sends Ariel, now a trusted prisoner, on a mission in a small dinghy. The idea is that Ariel will escape into nearby British or American territory, but Ariel true to his parole faithfully returns and even helps bring Madame La Guillotine ashore.Yugoslavian born Emir Kusturica plays the French islander the commoner Ariel Neel Auguste with a sensitive gentility, persuasively tough and docile, hardheaded and obedient.As Ariel waits execution, tables turn on Captain Jean. He's ordered home to Metroplitain France. Officially he's a guest of the fleet Admiral. Actually with political unrest at home Captain Jean faces the firing squad. He too is told of the many opportunities to escape, but steadfastly follows orders right up to his execution by firing squad.Daniel Auteuil plays the tough-fisted French Captain with the practised arrogance of an officer used to getting his way.I'm not entirely sure a motion picture though full of violence or threats of violence would be fully understood by an American audience. The parallelism between Captain Jean and the commoner Ariel is far too delicate for audiences which are addicted to shoot-em up high speed police chase lines.
noralee
"The Widow of St. Pierre (Veuve de Saint-Pierre)" is a very unconventional relationship triangle, with resonances of "Dead Man Walking." Juiliette Binoche is much more interesting and complex here than she is in "Chocolat" as a Lady Bountiful who is pushing redemption with more than a tinge of sensuality.Daniel Auteil who usually plays hapless contemporary men at first looks as out of place in a period costume drama as Harvey Keitel does, but he brings the intellectual and moral sensibility of the 20th century to a true story from an earlier one.Love and devotion--to a spouse and to duty-- are quietly played out against sophisticated political gamesmanship of a small town. The cinematography in Atlantic Canada is beautiful; the pregnant pause close-ups are as claustrophobic as living on the island outpost. It was partly filmed at one of my all-time favorite historic recreations at Louisbourg in Cape Breton, Newfoundland. (originally written 3/18/2001)
AD
