It’s a story of violent emotion quietly articulated in well-appointed rooms; the private scenes of man and wife navigating the emotional wreckage are punctuated by even more painful sequences.

| Jun 23, 2022

A work of stunning intensity underneath opulent fabrics

| Aug 30, 2009

Both protagonists give elegant and moving performances.

| Original Score: B | Jan 10, 2008

A film that matches all too well the times it portrays, Gabrielle is claustrophobic, stifling, and not a little crusty. Saved only by its exquisitely bitter performances and immaculate design.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jun 12, 2007

Rewards those who stay with it...at least those who use terms like deconstruction.

| Feb 22, 2007

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 30, 2006

Co-screenwriter/director Patrice Chereau doesn't seem in any particular hurry with the pacing. He practically dawdles, which makes the whole thing feel longer than its relatively scant running time.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 1, 2006

Although it is possible that French actress Isabelle Huppert makes the occasional false move, she does not make them in front of a camera.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 17, 2006

This is a careful and cinematic adaptation that rings with painful truth.

| Nov 16, 2006

Chronically impassive and faultlessly incurious about others, Gabrielle has been, for ten years, the perfect ornament of a social circle where 'emotion and failure are feared more than war.'

Full Review | Nov 11, 2006

Most of all, we think, 'Gosh, all of these experiments make for a cold, uninvolving film.'

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 9, 2006

For the most part, [Chereau] lets Huppert and Greggory provide the emotional impact. They respond accordingly, imbuing their mutual suffering with an exacting and moving finesse.

| Sep 28, 2006

A shocking, brilliantly original rumination on the subject of marital rot.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 26, 2006

Chereau matches Conrad's insistence on psychological accuracy, burrowing through the protective layers of self-delusion that hold so many human relationships together.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 15, 2006

Husband and wife, upper-class couple Jean and Gabrielle Hervey, are played, to perfection, by two of France's premier film actors: Pascal Greggory and Isabelle Huppert.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 7, 2006

Greggory is up to that journey, revealing the character in his various colors, and Huppert is at her usual best, subtle, emotionally full, focused and honest.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 25, 2006

A little less flash, and Gabrielle could have been a subtle classic. As is, it's still a powerful exploration of human nature.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 25, 2006

The director's skillful handing and the superb performances are liable to manipulate a smart audience as easily as they manipulate one another.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 24, 2006

Explosive and intense, melancholy yet sometimes mordantly funny, Gabrielle is the sort of picture that takes no prisoners. And offers no definitive answers.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Aug 24, 2006

An emotionally explosive adaptation of Joseph Conrad's short story.

| Original Score: B+ | Aug 16, 2006