Before I say anything else, I must point out that I love Daniel Auteuil and have seen many of his films. In fact, I look for films with him in it, as I am almost always guaranteed a wonderful film. In this case, he plays against his wife of the time, the radiant Emmanuelle Béart. Now that I have said that, I regret that this is one of the rare cases where I didn't particularly care for the film. Despite there currently being a very glowing review for the film featured on IMDb (giving it, inexplicably, a 10--a score too often overused), I just found the film too slow and uninvolving. Apparently after reviewing more of the comments, people either adored it or disliked it.
Auteuil plays a man who is a genius at fine-tuning and repairing violins. He is so good at what he does that he's sought out by people owning the best instruments in the world. The film begins with his business partner introducing Auteuil to his new mistress, Béart. A bit later in the film, Béart falls madly for Auteuil though the motivation for this is seemingly non-existent. That's because Auteuil is a bit of a schizoid personality and he relates much better to things than people. He is someone who is indifferent to friendships and relationships--a person who is pretty much unable or willing to fall in love. So why would she love him? Now it is possible that his actions are all an act and he really is just afraid of being hurt (psychologically speaking, this would make him an Avoidant personality). However, throughout the film there didn't appear to be much evidence of this but avoidants would also be very, very hard to get to know well. In actuality during the film it appeared he just didn't care that the incredibly sexy Béart adored him. So what you have in the film is a lady who on rare occasions throws herself at a man and the man reacts like he's a block of wood. And, considering that this is all done very, very slowly and deliberately, the film seem way too long and uninvolving. Technically, it was a pretty film (with nice music) but that's about all.
Auteuil plays a man who is a genius at fine-tuning and repairing violins. He is so good at what he does that he's sought out by people owning the best instruments in the world. The film begins with his business partner introducing Auteuil to his new mistress, Béart. A bit later in the film, Béart falls madly for Auteuil though the motivation for this is seemingly non-existent. That's because Auteuil is a bit of a schizoid personality and he relates much better to things than people. He is someone who is indifferent to friendships and relationships--a person who is pretty much unable or willing to fall in love. So why would she love him? Now it is possible that his actions are all an act and he really is just afraid of being hurt (psychologically speaking, this would make him an Avoidant personality). However, throughout the film there didn't appear to be much evidence of this but avoidants would also be very, very hard to get to know well. In actuality during the film it appeared he just didn't care that the incredibly sexy Béart adored him. So what you have in the film is a lady who on rare occasions throws herself at a man and the man reacts like he's a block of wood. And, considering that this is all done very, very slowly and deliberately, the film seem way too long and uninvolving. Technically, it was a pretty film (with nice music) but that's about all.