In the Shadow of Women
Description
Philippe Garrel once more delves into the emotional currents of male/female relationships in his beautifully modulated new film. Pierre (Stanilas Merhar) and his wife Manon (Clotilde Courau) have a close and slightly hermetic partnership, working on documentary projects together where he directs and she edits. Manon herself suggests to a girlfriend that she has perhaps subsumed her own life for her husband. A more serious fault line between the two emerges when Pierre meets Elizabeth (Lena Paugam), an archivist working in the production house where the couple is working on their latest project. Expertly shifting between these three primary characters, In the Shadow of Women prismatically reveals the manifold sides of this romantic quandary, with an omniscient voiceover narration (by the director’s son, Louis Garrel) providing further illumination. Evocatively shot in black and white like most of his work, Garrel’s latest is a beautiful miniature, a reflective and moving exploration of life, love and filmmaking.
Philippe Garrel was born in 1948 and made his first film at the age of 16. Much of his work focuses on the intimacies and romantic travails between men and women, but he is also responsible for the expansive epic Regular Lovers (SFIFF 2006), which concerns the student protests in Paris 1968 and won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Other recent titles include Jealousy (2013), A Burning Hot Summer (2011) and Frontier of the Dawn (2008).
Trailer
//www.youtube.com/embed/lkopAO2R0x4Film Details
Language French
Original Language Title L'ombre des femmes
Year 2015
Runtime 70
Country France/Switzerland
Director Philippe Garrel
Producer Saïd Ben Saïd, Michel Merkt
Writer Jean-Claude Carrière, Caroline Deruas, Arlette Langmann, Philippe Garrel
Editor François Gédigier
Cinematographer Renato Berta
Music Jean-Louis Aubert
Cast Clotilde Courau, Stanislas Merhar, Lena Paugam
Print Source Distrib Films