Les Destinées

Acclaimed French filmmaker Olivier Assayas follows up on the international success of Fin Août, Début Septembre and Irma Vep with this sweeping adaptation of the sprawling three-volume tome by Jacques Chardonne. Set in three chapters spanning from the beginning of the 1900s to after WWI, the first ...more

This languid, sprawling period drama represents a change of pace from director Olivier Assayas' usual, ultra-contemporary subject matter, but retains the auteur's emphasis on long-suffering romance presented in a uniquely modern, resolutely unsentimental style. For much of its first hour, Destinees shunts from character to character before finding its momentum with the central relationship between priggish heir Jean (Charles Berling) and his luminous new bride, Pauline (Emmanuelle Béart). While ...more