Finally! We’ve had the ‘flix disc for 2 mos+ and tonight seemed like a good time to get into a serious flick. Something un-Hollywood, you know what I’m saying? And Un cœur en hiver is just what the doctor ordered. I first saw part of this flick sometime in the early 2000s in my Brooklyn flat – don’t remember if I had the day off or was playing hooky. But I finally got out of bed round noon and clicked the tv on. It was playing on some indie channel. I remember not getting up from where I was – I was glued to every scene; and oh, the music! What beautiful, enchanting music this film has. Almost 10 years later I’m glad to report that the “dry as a whip” Stéphane and the temperamental Camille (together in real life at the time) still captivate. Now I wonder what other wonders of Claude Sautet I missed. Off to the video store it is!

Un cœur en hiver comes highly recommended.

Really great French film.

Un coeur en hiver

_At first sight “A Heart in Winter” is the story of a love triangle, a variation of the basic and often filmed competition of two men for the affection of a woman. At second sight, however, the film is a treatment of the philosophical question “What is love?” Unlike typical Hollywood movies, “A Heart in Winter” is not based on such popular premises as: love is the answer to everything, sexual consummation is the ultimate closure, or monogamous commitments are tantamount to happy endings. Sautet’s film subverts any such clichés by wondering about the nature of what people call “love,” by showing, for example, how much more weighty a passing glance can be than wild cohabitation, or by exploring the possibility that a quiet, solitary life can be as rich and deep as one that is crowded by emotional demands and relentless instinctual pressures. _