Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1992
A Heart in Winter
Buy A Heart in Winter now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'A Heart in Winter' is a French film which was released in 1992. It stars Emmanuelle Bart, Daniel Auteuil and Andr Dussollier. It was chosen to compete at the 49th Venice International Film Festival, where it won four awards, including tying for the Silver Lion. It was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 1994 BAFTA awards.
The romantic drama was the second-to-last film made by French writer/director Claude Sautet. He would work with Bart again on his final feature, 1995's 'Nelly and Mr. Arnaud' (original title 'Nelly et Monsieur Arnaud').
Plot
Highly regarded violin restorer Stphane (Daniel Auteuil) works and plays squash with his longtime business partner Maxime (Andr Dussollier). After Maxime, who is married, begins romancing concert violinist Camille (Bart), Stphane is called in to do some urgent repairs on Camille's violin. Camille begins to fall for Stphane, and reveals the truth to Maxime. Stphane's cool reaction causes confusion for Camille, and she lashes out at him for denying his feelings.[http://independentfilmquarterly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=357&Itemid=115 'Independent Film Quarterly']. Accessed 16 September 2015
Cast
* Emmanuelle Bart Camille
* Daniel Auteuil Stphane
* Andr Dussollier Maxime
* lizabeth Bourgine Hlne
* Brigitte Catillon Regine
* Myriam Boyer Mme. Amet
* Maurice Garrel Lachaume
* Jean-Luc Bideau Ostende
Music
The film features a number of performances of chamber music composed 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.
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 especially Ravel's Piano Trio. The track listing:
# Trio Pour Piano, Violon Et Violoncelle
#* i. Premier Mouvement
#* ii. Pantoum
#* iii. Passacaille
#* iv. Final
# Sonata Pour Violon Et Violoncelle
#* i. Allegro
#* ii. Trs Vif
#* iii. Vif, Avec Entrain
# Sonate Pour Violon Et Piano
#* i. Premier Mouvement
#* ii. Blues
#* iii. Perpetuum Mobile
# Berceuse Sur Le Nom De Gabriel Faur
Actor Emmanuelle Bart practised violin for at least a year before the film began shooting, so that she could convincingly mime the performance sequences.
Production notes
Bart and Auteuil were in a real-life relationship and married during the making of this film.
Claude Sautet based it on his memories of reading Russian Mikhail Lermontov's "Princess Mary".
The film is distributed by Koch-Lorber Films.
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 85% based on reviews from 13 critics.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3.5 out of 4, and wrote: "Un Coeur en Hiver, directed by Claude Sautet, has the intensity and delicacy of a great short story."
References
Buy A Heart in Winter now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1992