Jealousy

One of the major French filmmakers of the post-New Wave, Philippe Garrel has belatedly been recognized as a master in America, and JEALOUSY may be his most accessible film in nearly 50 years of filmmaking. Shot in lustrous, widescreen black and white by the great Willy Kurant (Masculin Feminin, Under Satan’s Sun), the film opens with a man leaving his wife and daughter and, in a series of brief conversations, observed gestures, chance encounters and impulsive acts, tells the story of the relationships that flounder and thrive in the wake of this decision. In a autobiographical nod to his actor father Maurice’s abandonment of himself and his mother, the director casts his son and frequent star Louis Garrel as the husband who moves into a garret apartment with his actress girlfriend (Anna Mouglalis) and struggles with fidelity and the temptation to give up their art for an easier life. Shot with Garrel’s celebrated sensitivity and attention to faces, bodies, hands and the intricacies of the human heart, JEALOUSY is an especially intimate, deeply poignant and never less than enthralling tale of love, temptation and betrayal.