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REVIEWS
In the Shadow of Women
Clotilde Courau and Stanislas Merhar star in a deeply felt,
bracingly ironic drama of infidelity from veteran French director Philippe Garrel
by boyd van hoeij
MARITAL INFIDELITY IS
something of a national
pastime in France, at least
if the movies are any indication.
In the latest film from
post-New Wave veteran Philippe Garrel, In
the Shadow of Women (L’Ombre des Femmes),
a married couple gets emotionally messed
up when both partners start cheating with
people who offer them physical pleasure but
not necessarily emotional connection.
Initially somewhat wispy-feeling, this
72-minute feature transforms
in its final reel from an ironic
divertissement to a work
of considerable feeling and
intensity. Shot in handsome
black-and-white on 35mm,
though projected digitally at
its Directors’ Fortnight premiere,
the widescreen feature
represents another respectable
addition to Garrel’s
filmography. It won’t break
the bank, but it’ll be admired
on the festival circuit and in
niche release.
Manon (Clotilde Courau)
works with her hubby, Pierre
(Stanislas Merhar), a documentary
filmmaker currently
preparing a film about the
French Resistance. Their
Parisian apartment, with its
peeling wallpaper and improvised
gas stove (which the
cranky landlord suggests is a
fire hazard), visually suggests
not just the fact that they
don’t make a lot of money,
but also that the concept of
upkeep is something they’re
unfamiliar with.
That disarray also extends to their relationship,
as Pierre is not interested in
accompanying Manon to soirees anymore,
instead preferring to stay home — or, later,
chat up a woman, Elisabeth (Lena Paugam),
who works at a film archive.
The offscreen voice of the director’s son
(and frequent collaborator), actor Louis
Garrel, occasionally comments on the action,
suggesting early on, for example, that Manon
— contrary to the title — lives in the shadow of
her husband. The voiceover recalls the films
of the French New Wave that clearly continue
to inspire Garrel senior, and also supplements
what the audience needs to know about Pierre,
Merhar (left) and Courau test
the boundaries of marriage.
who, as played by the somewhat stiff Merhar,
is the kind of stone-faced macho man who
doesn’t seem to have any feelings at all. When
he discovers, via Elisabeth of all people, that
Manon also is seeing someone else (Mounir
Margoum), it becomes clear that Pierre is the
type of guy who’s quick to judge others but
can’t bear to look at himself in the mirror.
This is the first time Garrel has filmed a
script co-written by veteran screenwriter and
frequent Bunuel collaborator Jean-Claude
Carriere, and the wicked irony typical
of some of the Bunuel-Carriere projects
can be felt here — and proves a welcome
antidote to Garrel’s tendency to play things
straight and low-key.
Some observations about the way men treat
women also feel relatively fresh and rather
contemporary in the world of Garrel films (in
one scene, Manon’s mother, played by the wonderful
character actress Antoinette Moya, tells
her offspring that “no man is worth sacrificing
your life for”).
Offering moments of mirth that help keep
the film from becoming too serious, Carriere,
Garrel and their fellow screenwriters employ
sharp humor to highlight how a couple’s true
feelings are not necessarily compatible with
the established mores surrounding fidelity
and marriage. The film’s last two sequences,
inside and then outside a church where the
funeral of a minor character is taking place,
are impeccably executed, with a pitch-perfect
Courau suggesting her character’s loneliness,
desire to stay strong and real sentiments for
Pierre through a couple of precise movements
and glances. Everything then clicks into place
for a deliciously ironic happy ending that
wraps up the story perfectly while driving
home its main themes.
Garrel’s production and costume designers,
Manu de Chauvigny and Justine Pearce, have
again come up with a world that looks and
feels like it is suspended somewhere in time
between the late 1960s and today, with a single
glimpse of a mobile phone, some 20 minutes
in, playing almost like a kind of “gotcha!”
gag for those wondering when exactly the story
is set. Renato Berta’s lightly grainy yet
always crisp cinematography rounds out the
solid technical package.
Directors’ Fortnight // Cast Clotilde Courau,
Stanislas Merhar, Lena Paugam,
Mounir Margoum // Director Philippe Garrel
72 minutes
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 46