A Heart in Winter

A Heart in Winter
Theatrical release poster
French	Un cœur en hiver
Directed by	Claude Sautet
Written by	Claude Sautet Jacques Fieschi
Produced by	Philippe Carcassonne
Starring	Daniel Auteuil Emmanuelle Béart André Dussollier Élizabeth Bourgine Myriam Boyer Brigitte Catillon Maurice Garrel Jean-Luc Bideau
Cinematography	Yves Angelo
Edited by	Jacqueline Thiédot
Music by	Maurice Ravel
Production companies	Film Par Film Cinéa Orly Films SEDIF D.A. Films Paravision International FR3 Films Production
Distributed by	AFMD
Release date	2 September 1992 (1992-09-02) (France)
Running time	105 minutes
Country	France
Language	French
Box office	$11.7 million[1]

A Heart in Winter (French: Un cœur en hiver) is a 1992 French romantic drama film co-written and directed by Claude Sautet. It stars Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Béart and André Dussollier. It was chosen to compete at the 49th Venice International Film Festival,^[2] where it won four awards, tying for the Silver Lion. It was nominated for Best Film Not in the English Language at the 47th British Academy Film Awards.

It was the second-to-last film by Sautet. He reunited with Béart on his final feature, 1995's Nelly and Mr. Arnaud.

Synopsis

Highly regarded violin restorer Stéphane works and plays squash with his longtime business partner Maxime. After Maxime, who is married, begins a relationship with concert violinist Camille, Stéphane is called in to do some urgent repairs on Camille's violin. Camille begins to fall for Stéphane, and reveals the truth to Maxime. Stéphane's cool reaction causes confusion for Camille, and she lashes out at him for denying his feelings.^[3]

Cast

• Emmanuelle Béart as Camille
• Daniel Auteuil as Stéphane
• André Dussollier as Maxime
• Élizabeth Bourgine as Hélène
• Brigitte Catillon as Regine
• Myriam Boyer as Mme. Amet
• Maurice Garrel as Lachaume
• Jean-Luc Bideau as Ostende

Music

The film features a number of performances of chamber music by Maurice Ravel, played by Jean-Jacques Kantorow (violin), Howard Shelley (piano) and Keith Harvey (cello). New Zealand musician Jeffrey Grice appears in the film in the role of the pianist.^[4]

The film contains only excerpts of Ravel compositions, but the soundtrack album includes them in their entirety, performed by Jean-Jacques Kantorow (violin), Philippe Muller (cello) and Jacques Rouvier (piano). A fourth Ravel composition not excerpted in the film, Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Faure, is on the soundtrack album. The film helped further popularise Ravel's Piano Trio. The track listing:

1. Trio Pour Piano, Violon Et Violoncelle
   • i. Premier Mouvement
   • ii. Pantoum
   • iii. Passacaille
   • iv. Final
2. Sonata Pour Violon Et Violoncelle
   • i. Allegro
   • ii. Très Vif
   • iii. Vif, Avec Entrain
3. Sonate Pour Violon Et Piano
   • i. Premier Mouvement
   • ii. Blues
   • iii. Perpetuum Mobile
4. Berceuse Sur Le Nom De Gabriel Fauré

Production

Emmanuelle Béart practised violin for at least a year before the film began shooting, so that she could convincingly mime the performance sequences.

Béart and Auteuil were in a relationship, and married during the making of this film.

Claude Sautet based it on his memories of reading Mikhail Lermontov's "Princess Mary".

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 85% based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10.^[5]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3.5 out of 4, and wrote that the film "has the intensity and delicacy of a great short story."^[6]

References

External links

• A Heart in Winter at IMDb
• A Heart in Winter at AllMovie
• A Heart in Winter at AlloCiné (in French)
• A Heart in Winter Archived 11 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine at Philosophical Films

This page was last edited on 28 October 2023, at 23:23