If you want a fast-paced film with lots of action, this is NOT the film for you. But if you want a film that's beautiful (the use of light is amazing!) and sensitively tells the story of a marriage with infidelity, then this is definitely a film for you to see. Emmanuelle Devos is brilliant in this role of a wife who is still loving, devoted and demonstrating much patience while her husband carries on an affair with her younger sister.
Elisa has clues that there's an affair going on. Only when Gilles acts extremely jealous and aggressive at a dance, it becomes clear that he has feelings for Victorine.
Gilles has a full life with a night job at a foundry, his wife Elisa, two young daughters and a third child on the way. But it's not clear if his infidelity is a habit or a phase he's going through because of his own self-dissatisfaction. It might even be possible that he's going through an early mid-life crisis. But her sister is younger, more sophisticated and different. Men passing by compare her to Mistinguett. So maybe Gilles attraction to her is because she's different and not so familiar and available like his wife?
Here's a video which features Mistinguett singing Mon Homme, a song that is also played in this film:
This film was very well-cast, as the two actresses who portray sisters look very similar and the dynamic between them is believable. The cinematography is also quite creative.
By the way, in French, the name Gilles is pronounced without the 's' somewhat like "Jeel" ('J' is pronounced like "Jill") not "Geel."
Some quotes from this film:
"Cover yourself!"---Elisa to Victorine.
"Smoke? Nothing better to kill a woman."---Elisa to Gilles, who is a smoker
"You'll get over your little fling."---Elisa to Gilles
"If I didn't love her, I wouldn't have all these feelings."---Gilles
"If I yell at him, he will leave. I know him. So I can't...Father, I need help.I don't know. I don't know what to do."---Elisa to priest in confessional
"I was a complete jerk to you."---Gilles to Elisa and to which she replies, "Not completely, if you can say that."
"Well, if you knew, you really should have kept your husband at home."---Victorine to Elisa
Some scenes from this film:
Here's the trailer for this film:
