The Captive (2000) User Reviews

La Captive is....captivating

[Rogue-32 · 7/10 · 29 August 2002]

Having recently discovered French actress Sylvie Testud when I saw The Chateau, I was interested in this film because she's in it. I haven't read the story that the film is supposedly based on so I had nothing to compare it to when I saw it and therefore I went in without any preconceived notions. And with a film like this, a film that doesn't operate on any conventional filmmaking level, that is a very good thing.

This movie doesn't try to tell you what to think or feel about its characters; there is none of the contrivances so common in American movies, none of the manipulation. It just simply presents them and follows them and allows them to do what they do without the camera cutting away too soon for fear that the audience will get bored when there's not a lot "going on" in a scene - in fact some of the best scenes in the film have hardly any movement at all. And this is not done in a self-conscious, 'arty' let's-create-mood sort of way, which makes watching it - or rather experiencing it - even more hypnotic.

This is a film that must be experienced more than once, I would say: you're not really sure what's transpired OR how you feel about what you've witnessed upon a first viewing because it doesn't hit all the 'buttons' that a commercial film is compelled to hit. And Testud is brilliant, managing to imply complexity without demonstrating it (if that makes sense) - she's beyond subtle, beyond sublime.

A radically different approach to Proust from Ruiz's 'Le Temps Retrouve'(spoiler in penultimate paragraph)

[the red duchess · 6/10 · 5 December 2000]

'La Captive' is, above all, a detective story. It opens, in scenes reminiscent of 'Vertigo', with a man following the movements of a woman later revealed to be his lover. It actually opens with him looking at her in a home video as she sits on the beach with her friend Andree. He tries to make out what she's saying, and the whole film is his attempt to read and interpret this woman, this so-called captive (the next book in Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time' is called 'The Fugitive').

The first word he says, though, as he watches this video, is 'je', 'I', and this is the crux of the mystery. Is he reading her with too much 'I', too much subjective misinterpretation, to the point where her personality is literally squeezed to nothing (her name is changed from Proust's Albertine to Ariane = a rien), vanishing from the film? Or is it her 'I' that Simon tries to solve, as he sets himself the impossible task of fully possessing, fully knowing another person? Who is Ariane's 'je vous aime bien' referring to - Simon or her friend sitting beside her? The title refers to a female captive, but the real prisoner here is Simon, wandering in a labyrinth of jealousy, suspicions, half-clues and lies.

When a great filmmaker films a great book, it is instructive to note what she has left out as much as she leaves in. 'La Prisonniere' (why the name change?) is the fifth book in Proust's giant novel, but those thousands of pages of Proustian backstory are absent, the tortured obsession of the narrator with Albertine, his alarmed discovery of different sexualities (repressing his own?), his past (no madeleines here!), his desires, his art, his self-justifications. Indeed, where Ruiz's 'Le Temps Retrouve' is as close to Proustian FULLNESS as we are likely to get, 'La Captive' is Proust without the Proust. Set in a sort of timeless present (modern dress, period locations and mores), where Proust glides in a liberated chronology, 'La Captive' discards tastes, smells, music, comedy, society (no Charlus!), nature, time.

Proust's 'La Captive' is on one level even more suffocating than this film, filled largely with the agonisings and imaginings in the head of one man who never leaves his room - are Simon's wanderings here mental peregrinations, explaining the film's air of unreality? About halfway through the book, the reader is given blessed relief with a 100-page musical soiree, which opens it from the private to the public, the analytic to the observational, the tragic to the comic. This is completely absent here, as Akerman goes for a relentless narrative of cat-and-mouse jealousy reminiscent of Chabrol's 'L'Enfer', pushed so solemnly that it eventually becomes comic.

Similarly, the underlying, organising motif of the book, music, linking the narrator's awareness and transcendence of his locale, his memories of his past, his ideals for art, and Albertine, are mostly gone, making the film much more austere, and also minimising Albertine/Ariane (one exception is the beautiful sequence where Albertine and a neighbour , both birds behind cages, sing 'Cosi Fan Tutti' (women are all like that - captives?) to each other from their balconies, a breath of fresh air in their stifling lives, from another tale (like 'Vertigo' of women subjected to dangerous and repressive male jealousy).

It seems strange that Akerman should choose to follow Proust's narrative trajectory, emphasising mad male obsessiveness, rather than somehow rescuing Albertine, who is as indistinct here - as an ephemeral construct in Simon's mind - as in the book. Even her final gesture of liberation is denied, with the suggestion that Simon has killed her, his 'I' literally submerging her in the beach from which, in that opening video, she emerged.

Akerman's procedures are very similar to those of d'Oliveira's 'La Lettre', another transposing of an alien past to modern dress, where the cultural codes are not adapted, and hence jar, making us ask questions about the director's seemingly capricious intentions. The incongruity between the glossy imagery and the austere narrative creates a compelling mystery beyond that of plot, also reminiscent of Phillipe Garrel's 'Le vent de la nuit'. Still, I'll take Proust or Ruiz anyday. Pseuds may be interested to know that one of the machinistes was a certain Christian Metz.

you have to read Proust

[ligonwd · 6/10 · 19 April 2005]

You have to read Proust to appreciate this movie. I imagine it was the most awful, boring treachery to subject someone to if they hadn't read La Captive. Ackerman is actually quite witty in portraying the mental restlessness of the characters, especially Ariane/Albertine constantly being caught in her poorly planned deceptions). In addition to this her visual portrayal of Proust's themes of desire and dissatisfaction are very poignant(although sometimes uncomfortable). An example being the bathing scene, where Simon/Marcel is most vulnerable and unselfishly sensual (I say unselfishly because of the contrast of the other sensual scenes where Ariane is sleeping) but this is only possible for him because of the distance and physical barrier between them. Ackerman is not entirely successful at putting Proust's La Captive on film, but she does make a beautiful, simplified attempt.

Ariane as Fetish

[jcappy · 5 September 2011]

Akerman's "La Captive" sticks in the memory. I think it must be its meditative force, and its very concrete means of expressing some truths about men and women.

The title most assuredly gets delivered--in every scene, in every word, in every image. Ariane is viewed, desired, captured. Simon first possesses her as an image in a private video of a group of lesbians enjoying themselves on a beach. He then, like a detective or spy, puts his "love" object under direct surveillance, and takes her into his luxurious apt establishing her as he would say his comfortable tub, or his bed, to satisfy his longings.

Thus it is that Ariane, simply be being female, arouses in Simon sex or sexual erection, predation, and bondage. But she is no prisoner of place--no, she is rather a prisoner on a leash. She is free to leave the periphery, free to be watched, stalked, inquisited, pounced upon , and retracted to service as a sexual prop and pliant companion.

Her lesbian circle, her social life remain open to her because they spark Simon's objectifying sexuality. He needs the danger of her rejection to challenge and thus intensify his control over her. He needs to know his charmer, from inside out. Is lesbian love superior to his love? Does Ariane secretly scorn him? He needs to know her deepest secrets, in order to win her total dependency. For it is not her body, her budding innocence, her slimly fashionable doll-like persona, nor even her seductive sleep that is his primary interest, but rather her literal self. This is the only booty that will satisfy his quest for male identity.

Ariane in short is no more than a fetish. She's been deprived of her vivid community, her lesbianism, and her emotional landscape. She cannot be herself because she has shrunk in captivity, and because she has become accustomed to captivity. That's what he's done to her, because it is her thoughts and her feelings that he needs to own.

But ironically, he needs to know all about someone who knows nothing worth knowing. It has all gone from her as in amnesia. Full submission means going blank, so Ariane cannot answer any of Simon's prying questions. To respond to Simon's "love" she has had to become a thing--but not completely. She has saved some of herself for herself.

And in the end, her self-containment cracks. Ariane's single passionate moment returns her to the sea, to the scene of her capture, and far more importantly to the actual place of her pre-captive life--and to her strong swimming , and to the physical strength to resist further imprisonment.

Oh, God, the other reviewer ain't lyin! This was AWFUL!

[sonnenberg · 1/10 · 4 November 2005]

I'm currently studying Proust, and so looked forward to this. I figured the other review HAD to be wrong about how bad this was. But they weren't! I love slow, ponderous French movies. But this one absolutely killed me, bludgeoned me with a big fat dull fence post and left me by the side of one of the many long roads I'd watched the actors drive interminably and wordlessly down. I finally had to watch it on fast forward, because NOTHING HAPPENS time and time and time again for minutes at a stretch. I don't envy a director/scriptwriter who takes Proust on, because so much of the richness of his characters and stories is interior. But, God! You've got to at least TRY to convey those depths by something other than static shots of actors doing and saying nothing. Boo. Hiss. Just awful.

The Captive

[jboothmillard · 5/10 · 17 October 2019]

I found this French film because it used to feature in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, it was rated average by critics, but it sounded interesting, so I was intrigued, directed by Chantal Akerman (Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels). Basically, Simon (Stanislas Merhar) lives in an apartment with his grandmother (Françoise Bertin) and his girlfriend Ariane (Sylvie Testud). He follows Ariane every day watching where she goes and what she does, to see whether she is lying to him about her activities. Simon is often controlling, but Ariane submits to his ways. It seems he is only capable of having intercourse when she pretends to be asleep, but she lets him do so. However, Simons becomes jealous of Ariane's friendships with other people, including a woman he suspects she is having an affair with. Unable to let go of his jealousy he asks her to move out of his apartment. Ariane agrees to leave Simon and he drives her to her aunt's house where she plans to move. During the drive they discuss what they consider love to be. Simon admits he believes love is impossible without knowing everything about the other person while Ariane disagrees and says he is unable to access thoughts and feelings like she can. When they arrive at the aunt's home, Simon is unable to let her go and begs her to come back with him, to which she agrees. On the way home they stop at a seaside hotel. While Simon goes to order food, Ariane has disappeared, and he is left alone. Simon believes Ariane has committed suicide by drowning herself in the sea. Simon dives into the water to try to find her, he is rescued by a boat and brought back to shore without Ariane, it is never revealed what happened to her. Also starring Olivia Bonamy as Andrée, Liliane Rovère as Françoise, Aurore Clément as Léa, Anna Mouglalis as Isabelle and Bérénice Bejo as Sarah. Merhar gives an interesting almost quiet performance as the obsessive rich young man, and Testud does alright as the young woman who seems to follow almost anything he says, I have to admit the first half of the film, with the creepy controlling stuff was interesting, it slowed in the second half, but a reasonable drama. Worth watching!

A magnificently subtle film

[runamokprods · 9/10 · 5 June 2010]

A quiet, intense, low key look at the dysfunctional relationship between a very rich young man and the young woman he 'keeps' at his house. Is she trapped or is he? Who's really the captive?

Not much happens in terms of events, the film is mostly in the details, but those details are great. The two leads give amazingly subtle performances, and the photography and lighting – while never showy – are magnificent. One of the most interesting and effective 'cold' looks I've seen in a film. Beautiful compositions.

A film for those interested in complexity of character, a director using image and mood to tell a story, and patience to allow the slow accumulation of details to add up over time to something very special.

Worst Movie Ever!

[jasonsturgeon · 1/10 · 10 May 2006]

I have seen a lot of movies in my life and I have never walked out of the movie theater and rarely ever stopped watching a movie. If I paid to see this, I would have walked out. We had to fast forward at 2x at that was the speed the movie could have been done at. Many long scenes with no talking at all and just driving. The characters were empty with no essence, no emotion, no depth to them what so ever. The man was pathetic and his submissive girlfriend had a blank expression on her face through the whole thing. This movie could have been saved if the hint of romantic relationship with the girlfriend and her female friend would have been woven into the story. Bottom line is that what this movie lacked is what lacks in a lot of relationships where people ask later "what went wrong?": lack of communication, thats what. Moodiness, and sad puppy dog looks don't do it, we need to know what is going on through the characters' heads, what makes them tick not just what makes them obsessed. One moment of anguish sobs at his grandmas arms is not enough to wake us up from the silent, expressionless coma this movie put us in. This movie should have never been made. No one should ever see this. It would truly be a waste of your time.

Does not draw us deeply enough into its mysteries

[howard.schumann · 8/10 · 16 February 2014]

Because of its complex and introspective nature, the works of the great French novelist Marcel Proust have been difficult to translate to the screen in spite of some very fine attempts by Raul Ruiz and others. Chantal Akerman's La Captive is no exception. Inspired by the fifth of seven volumes of Proust's epic novel In Search of Lost Time, the film captures the obsessive quality of the relationship between Simon (Stanislaus Merhar) and Ariane (Sylvie Testud) (Marcel and Albertine in the novel), but is unable to project onto the screen the novel's exquisite prose, psychological subtlety, or depth of feeling. While Simon is given a thoughtful treatment, he comes across more as strange and unpleasant than the deeply sensitive, poetic young man of the book.

La Captive begins at home with Simon viewing films of Ariane and some friends during their summer together in Normandy. Repeatedly viewing the footage, he carefully utters the words "I really like you," but it is unclear if the sentiment is his, or if he is vocalizing what he imagines to be the thoughts of his mistress. Set in Paris, Akerman updates the story from its turn of the century milieu and transports it to the modern era with automobiles and well-lit boulevards filled with traffic replacing the horse and carriage. Simon is a somber, well-to-do young man who lives in an ornate Paris apartment with his grandmother (Francoise Bertin), housekeeper Francoise (Liliane Rovére), and girlfriend Ariane (Sylvie Testud).

Though they claim to love each other, each keeps their distance. Ariane lives in an adjacent room and only comes to see Simon when he sends for her in an ongoing ritual. Dialogue is sparse and mostly consists of Simon asking Ariane questions that elicit noncommittal responses such as "if you like," "I can't say," or "you think so?" Mimicking Bressonian models, the actor's facial expressions range from enigmatic to blank, and, aside from some perfunctory kissing, the only time that passion shows up is when Simon rubs up against Ariane's body while she is asleep (or pretending to be). When Simon demands to know what Ariane is thinking, she replies, "If I had any thoughts, I'd tell you—but I don't." Some situations would be comical if they were not sad. As Simon watches Ariane from an adjoining bathroom while sitting in his tub, he tells her how much he admires the odors between her legs and says that if it weren't for his illnesses, he would rather that she would never wash. On another occasion, he probes to find out the number of lies she has told him, insisting that two lies are not enough, he wants at least four. The jealous and insecure Simon has accumulated evidence in his own mind that Ariane is physically attracted to women but it is not made clear (either in the novel or the film) whether his suspicions are real or imagined.

Nonetheless, Simon is preoccupied by the part of Ariane's life that he believes she is withholding from him, following her in an art gallery and physically removing her from a performance of Carmen at the Trocadero out of his fear of her friendship with the actress Lea (Aurora Clément). When Simon is unable to leave the house because of an asthmatic condition, he assigns their mutual friend Andrée (Olivia Bonamy) to track her whereabouts and report back to him. He even goes so far as to question lovers Sarah (Bérénice Bejo) and Isabelle (Anna Mouglalis) about what they think about when they make love.

Although the characterizations in La Captive are very real and quite haunting, the film covers only a small portion of Proust's fifth volume, omitting the colorful characters that make it so special: Charlus, Morel, the Verdurin's, Brichot, and Mme de Guermantes to name a few, and there is no hint of the music, society, and themes of memory, nature, and awareness of time and place that dominate the narrative. Though the pacing is deliberately slow to capture the enigmatic quality of the relationship, the film, while absorbing, is static and does not draw us deeply enough into its mysteries to compensate for its dramatic inertness.

zzzzzz

[roobad · 1/10 · 13 August 2005]

What a disappointment! And, if you're going to make a film this boring, at least make it a bit shorter. They should put "ideal for insomnia sufferers" on the cover. I can't believe I wasted nearly two hours of my time on this pointless film. At the beginning I thought "Give it a chance, it might be a slow burner," Once it got to the middle I thought hurrah! something has to happen now. I was sorely mistaken. Frankly, I have a mind to ask for my money back from my video shop. A guy wanders round Paris, following his missus and looking glum. More happens in Eastenders (and that was before the Demi/Leo storyline). Seriously, root canal work is less painful than this. Don't bother. Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go and find some fresh paint to watch.

A calming movie

[florian-baelz · 12 August 2002]

So many loud and shouting films, so much moving. This movie makes you calm down and should make you think. Aside from the literary background, which I didn't know when watching the movie, I found La Captive very intense and inspiring. If you are in a depressed state of mind, it might not be the right movie to watch. But anyway, then there is at least the great acting and the beautiful camera. My companion wanted to leave, but I resisted and it was worth it.

When will something happen

[TheHig · 1/10 · 9 June 2003]

As a film student, I have to watch a wide variety of films, both good and bad. This has to rate as the worst film on the first year of my course, and one of the worst films ever made.

If you like your drama to be slightly slower than normal, then this may be for you, but even those who appreciate thought provoking over action will still be bored senseless by this absolute tripe.

I have never seen a film slower than this one. The largely static camera barely helps, admittedly an intentional move, but I doubt intended to bore us that much.

Yes this film sucks, and you'll be wishing the lead character would drive his car off the road, just to make it end.

My Rating: 1/10

Utterly Vile

[hillww · 1/10 · 18 July 2021]

There is absolutely no way this rotten film would be made today. That has to be a good thing.

A rich waster exerts what we now call coercive control over a young girl who for the most part appears numb, almost catatonic.

And nothing happens until the inevitable ending.

Avoid.

Watch the film.

[jromanbaker · 10/10 · 29 August 2019]

This film gets only 5.9?! First, I love Proust, but you do not have to read this specific part of 'In Search of Lost Time' to appreciate this extraordinary story of obsession and the need of one lover to absorb another, and the other lover to need to keep both a distance and a mystery in the relationship.

Chantal Akerman was arguably one of France's greatest directors before she was tragically lost. She was focused in a way that makes most directors seem fuzzy, and her talent with both images and actors was unbeatable. That her images and pacing take their time demands attention from an audience like any work of art. She uses Rachmaninov's music 'Isle of the Dead' as a key motif in sound that puts other overlaid music in most films to shame. I am here to praise this film, but her work as a whole deserves perhaps more praise than it gets. Eric De Kuyper, a great writer who wrote the script with her, is also a filmmaker of importance. Eric De Kuyper, a great writer who wrote the script with her, is also a filmmaker of importance. Everything is in order in this film. Both lead actors are superb, especially Stanislas Merhar who is, in my opinion, a male Garbo among actors. Elusive, beautiful and always holding an essential mystery in his way of acting, he rivets the gaze of the viewer to the screen. There is nothing to fault in this film, and impatient viewers, which most reviewers are, should watch it more than once. It deserves more than the insulting 5.9 it has been given, but then this perhaps reflects the quality of the eyes and minds that receive it.

So bad movie it is!

[wanghui · 1/10 · 11 June 2002]

Oh, my God. I can't believe so bad movie it can be made. Bad directed, bad written, bad cinematographered. The whole thing is garbage. After 112 minutes watching, I got nothing but one man and one woman. I can't imagine anything that the director want to tell. I really hate the movie. If you haven't watch it, do not take it. It's really bad.

A film that shows how both sides suffer

[bellstuartanthony · 8/10 · 13 July 2015]

This is a subtly faithful interpretation of Proust's The Prisoner in which Chantal Akerman makes chasers and voyeurs out of her viewers, craning to see around street corners, straining to make out desired shapes behind warped glass. While the camera pursues the truth about Ariane, who seems to be forever drifting away, we remain fixed in the claustrophobic world of Simon's preoccupied anxiety. As did Proust, Akerman opens a space for the exploration of co-dependent attachment, not only love, and the painful reality of the search for self- avoidance. The Prisoner leaves the viewer caught between the (apparent) bliss of Ariane's ignorance and Simon's monomaniacal certainty. For me, this is the closest French cinema has come (up to now) to bottling the elusive Albertine scent. The silent film reel that plays during the film's opening too recalls the playful beaches of Balbec In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower, foreshadowing undoing and tragedy. A film for anyone who understands obsession.

I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone!

[pamplonica · 1/10 · 17 March 2003]

Even though I went to see the movie with great expectations, I didn't like the movie at all!!. I thought it was boring as it could be and except from the photography, everything else was worse than mediocre!! I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone!

La Captive (2000): Moody, melancholic, thought provoking, social commentary

[facebook-56-626447 · 8/10 · 18 July 2014]

At the start I found this film very slow and I think anyone would who did not appreciate its nature before watching it.

It's easy in this one to be put off with the almost entirely gloomy settings, however, they are part of the film and, as you begin to appreciate what the film is actually about, they make a lot more sense.

The film is not about a plot or a story, it is about the people in it. Nor does it tell you what it is about the people that you are meant to see. So this film is very much for the viewer who likes to watch, observe, think and conclude.

You basically get a very slow and moody perspective on a strange(?) boy girl relationship. The interaction between them is never really explained until right up till the end, so it's a case of watching and wondering what is going on between them.

Apparently uneventful, I found myself being slowly drawn into, seduced by, their romance, question being stacked on question till I did really feel a bit frustrated.

However, in the last 30-40 minutes this film suddenly becomes alive and you begin to understand what the point of it was. The point is very poignant and sad and would never have been put across had the earlier 3/4 of the film not been so 'uneventful'.

If you like poetry, you will probably like this film. It has you wondering and speculating right up to the last stanza when you then realise the point of what came before. It is a very sad but beautiful poem.

Remarkable

[roger-00277 · 9/10 · 2 June 2020]

This showed up on the Criterion Channel, so I thought I would take a look. I'm not a Proust person, and not familiar with Akerman. But I do know Hitchcock, and was initially put off by how the entire opening sequence, after the home movie bit, is a riff on Scottie following Madeline in Vertigo. I mean, it is not imitation, but almost a quotation. So for me the entire film plays out in dialog with Vertigo. This is a good thing. Akerman's film is both an explanation of, and is explained by, the Hitchcock film. This becomes more clear when you think about it. When you are watching it, ir is like entering the internal state of Scottie/Simon, and with them the viewer is obsessed with the blankness of Madeline/Ariane. You want to find the secret -- there must be a secret! -- to her complete passivity, her submission. People complain about the length of the movie, but for me, I was astonished when it ended. It seemed like I had only been watching for 15 minutes.

Then you start to think about it. It is a film that will live in your memory. One of the fascinating things about the interplay with Vertigo is what Akerman decides to show us, and what she withholds. In Vertigo, Scottie's sexual attraction for Madeline is never made explicit. Instead, he indicates the impossible moment when Scottie undresses the (pretending to be unconscious?) Madeline in his apartment after she jumps in the bay. Akerman, on the other hand, shows us Simon having what passes for him as sex with Ariane, while she pretends to be asleep. I am still sorting out what this choice means. Another comparison is the ending of both films, Scottie in the bell tower, looking wildly at Judy's dead body, and Simon, in the bow of the boat, looking wildly at something -- Ariane's corpse? -- on the shore. Whereas it is clear what has happened in the Hitchcock picture, here we can only suspect. In a way, there is no resolution in Akerman's film. We are just left with a puzzle -- the puzzle of desire.

Craves indulgence

[federovsky · 22 May 2017]

Modern day adaptation of a section of Proust's magnum opus that is true enough to the book in its theme and events and interestingly has the Marcel character still sunk in an archaic, aristocratic world.

KD Lang lookalike Stanislas Merhar does a good job doing the insulated, emotional (and physical) frailty, trapped in an adolescent infatuation of towering poetic naivety, all the while consumed with jealousy by the suspicion that his live-in girlfriend is an active lesbian behind his back.

It's slow. There's a lot of prowling around his creaking Paris apartment, lots of talking in cars - we seem to be taking entire journeys in real time. Akerman gave herself an easy directing job. The use of classical music is lazy - Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata is suitably Proustian, but Rachmaninov's Isle of the Dead is absurdly melodramatic, especially when played incongruously, Godard-fashion, over serene images.

Those familiar with the writer and director can easily pull back the gauze to reveal the real issues - an inverted couple struggling to maintain a hetero relationship - but that is so superficial it hardly seems worth special effort and the film works better with the ambiguity in place (as intended), with the implication that naivety (misunderstanding, confusion) is at the root of jealous passion. The Marcel character is so naïve that in the sex scenes he doesn't even know that he is supposed to put it in - doing the movements without getting undressed (he's in bed in his overcoat in one scene). That was strangely tragic, and although it may have been a stylisation to symbolise their failure to connect, it was easier to take it literally.

With liberties like that though, and done so earnestly, it's craves some indulgence. The worst problem is that the girl is comatose and unattractive, showing nothing of Albertine's sprightliness and guile that gave that character her painful duplicity. The ending too is a disappointment.

An engaging, somewhat underhandedly dark drama

[I_Ailurophile · 9/10 · 21 May 2023]

Though maintaining a very low-key tone, this immediately looks and feels so very different from Chantel Akerman's earlier films ('Je tu il elle,' 'Les rendez-vous d'Anna,' and especially 'Jeanne Dielman') that I had to periodically check to make sure I was watching the right movie, and one of hers. Music is prominent at intermittent points (very much enriching the proceedings whenever it does crop up), and the soundtrack is generally kind of busy; the camera moves, and the narrative on mind is much more discrete, active, and dynamic than has been the case elsewhere with Akerman. Yet this is invariably of the same high quality one expects from the filmmaker, exquisitely crafted with all the skill and intelligence we know she possessed. It may not be readily appealing for those who seek quicker gratification from cinema, but whether one is a fan of Akerman specifically or just looking for a good, subdued drama, 'La captive' is excellent.

This retains to some extent, within the framework of a slightly more conventional drama, the minimalism that the filmmaker had mastered early in her career. There is rather little going on in a scene at any given time, and the acting is kept at a very controlled, muted tenor. Be that as it may, as director Akerman orchestrates shots and scenes with the same keen artistic eye she had shown from the start, and the feature is curious and engrossing right away. Sabine Lancelin echoes the broad airs of quiet refinement with cinematography that's crisp and vivid in capturing every shot, making the viewing experience all the more pleasing. This is all the more true in light of gorgeous filming locations, and exquisite production design and art direction, that pop out with terrific color and elegance; naturally the hair, makeup, and costume design are just as splendid, if less prevalent.

Above all, however, Akerman has conjured a story that's a bit dark and haunting in a way, and roundly intriguing and captivating. 'La captive' is thought-provoking as pensive Simon, controlling to the point of abuse, nonetheless flounders when he realizes he doesn't know everything about Ariane, and never could. Perplexing as it may be that Ariane willingly attached herself to Simon, genuine affection can't withstand the disparity between them. Both characters are shrewdly complicated, and the dialogue between them, or in Simon's attempts to gain more understanding, is absorbing in and of itself. The scene writing is stark and unexpectedly bewitching in the hushed buzz of tension that underlies this central relationship, from the coldness of early scenes to the more heightened drama of the last stretch. It's a great credit to Sylvie Testud, Stanislas Merhar, and (in a smaller supporting part) Olivia Bonamy that they infuse so much nuanced range and depth of emotion into their roles in light of what is mostly so restrained a picture, and this couldn't have the underhanded potency that it does without them.

Even Akerman's most highly acclaimed and well known movies are unquestionably best suited for a select audience. While this one bears more similarity in some ways to titles that most viewers would be more familiar and comfortable with, it's nonetheless still quite understated, and without even taking the subject matter into consideration it won't appeal to all. For my part I wouldn't necessarily say that it's as strong as some of Akerman's other works, either, though that's just a matter of personal preference. Him and haw as one might about the particulars, however, all the same I think this is very well done, a finely made, engaging, and satisfying exploration of a fraught relationship. It may not be something one needs to go out of their way to see, but if you do have the opportunity to watch then 'La captive' is well worth two hours of one's time as far as I'm concerned.