The Captive Details

2000

Rated:
40
from 483 members

Starring	Olivia Bonamy, Francoise Bertin, Stanislas Merhar, Sylvie Testud
Director	Chantal Akerman
Genres	Drama, World Cinema

The Captive

The fifth volume of Marcel Proust's legendary novel REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST is the source for veteran French feminist filmmaker Chantal Akerman's remarkable film THE CAPTIVE. Following a theme common in her past films--the impossibility of true knowledge of the other, Akerman crafts a severe and stilted chamber drama out of Proust's evocative and poetic text. Simon (Stansilas Merhar) is a wealthy and sensitive French man living in a posh, if cloistered, life in Paris. Ariane (Sylvie Testud) is Simon's lover and constant companion, as well as the subject of his irritated obsessions. Not satisfied with merely loving Ariane, Simon aches to have absolute knowledge of her-- her past, her present, her thoughts, and her deeds. When having her accompanied at every moment does not satisfy him, Simon begins to follow her everywhere she goes, questioning acquaintances, and constructing elaborate fictions around her every action. Suspecting her of a secret life filled with love for other women and a true happiness to which he is not privileged, Simon attempts to penetrate Ariane's aloof and opaque facade, only to bring their impossible love to a breaking point. Akerman's tight and constrained style, assisted by stylized acting, creates a complex and compelling portrait of the tragedy inherent in love.

Starring	Olivia Bonamy, Francoise Bertin, Stanislas Merhar, Sylvie Testud, Aurore Clement, Liliane Rovere
Director	Chantal Akerman
Studio	ARTIFICIAL EYE
Run time	DVD: 1 hr 58 mins
Certificate
Genres	Drama, World Cinema
Language	DVD: French
Subtitles	DVD: English
Released	DVD: 29 Oct 2001 Production year: 2000
Format	DVD

Critics' reviews (4) of The Captive
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All film-maker Chantal Akerman's trademarks are contained in this rigidly controlled adaptation of Marcel Proust's short story La Prisonnière. However, these trademarks — the long takes and impeccable compositions, the fascination with corridors and journeys, and the justifiable anger at cinema's continuing fixation with objectifying women — all serve to distance us from the disturbing storyline. As a study of passion and possession, this is often intriguing. But such is the solemnity of the staging that it's difficult to engage with either the impassive Sylvie Testud or Stanislas Merhar, the jealous suitor who hires her best friend, Olivia Bonamy, to spy on her every movement.
- Radio Times
- Posted 29 Jan 2006
Akerman returns to top form with this strange but compelling version of Proust's La Prisonnière. Set in (just about)... read more on Time Out
- Time Out
- Posted 04 Nov 2008
Most helpful member's review of The Captive
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6 out of 7 people found this review helpful

Whatever happened to the Nouvelle Vague?

Inspired by Proust’s Prisonnaire. A rich kid obsesses over his girlfriend, whom he follows, has accompanied everywhere, questions unremittingly and sniffs whilst naked. The truth/his imagination of her lesbian double life slowly comes to the fore and he forces himself to question the material of their love and to confront the possibility that his dreams may be built on a lie.

It looks like part of the New Bourgeois French cinema but is has vaguely leftfield pretensions. Maybe those who ‘get’ the film themselves become captive in the meditative, minimalist presentation, all clippy-cloppy footsteps and Hitchcockian trailing scenes, up and down staircases, behind pillars in empty galleries.

But I would have thought I was one of the people who would be meant to ‘get’ it and I just found it boring, uninvolving. The quiet minimalism that has become shorthand for arthouse film is not only overused, but frequently done badly. When it’s done well, watching such a film can be an overwhelming experience.

But the amount of films that employ this style to little distraction belies the true potential of cinema: to be exciting, colourful, engaging, to have humour, to move, physically and emotionally. This is Akerman pretentiously trying to be a painter, not a filmmaker, and in my opinion she can’t paint. With a bad crew, her mediocrity as a filmmaker would have been glaringly apparent to everyone. But smooth dollys, richly photographed colours and a full orchestra announce Akerman’s pedigree as a New Bourgeois.
- - gordoncrombie from Manchester
  - Posted 23 Jul 2004 14:34
Most recent members' review of The Captive
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3 out of 4 people found this review helpful

obsessed

This is a strange film but well made, even if it is a bit hard to follow at times, the film follows Ariane & Simon lives from the early days, through his growing obsession to what can only be discribed as paranoia, The ending left you somwhat confussed as to what happened, but I suppose it was left up to you to deceide that. If anything this film shows how some people can become obsessed with one another, and I would suggest anyone who has an obsessed partner should get this to show them what it like. well worth a look if you have nothing else to do for a while.
- - andrew healy from Gravesend, England
  - Posted 24 Nov 2004 19:45
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