Les Destines Sentimentales. is the pick of Martell French Film Tour at the Phoenix this year, writes David Parkinson.
Adapted with literary respect and cinematic assurance, Olivier Assayas's condensation of Jacque Chardonne's three-volume novel is a remarkable achievement. The visual style is wholly modern, yet never detracts from either the sense of period or the gravity of the themes.
Exploring shifting moral, social and economic values and the enduring power of love, the film follows pastor Charles Berling from his desertion of both the church and his adulterous wife (Isabelle Huppert) through his marriage to the inexperienced Emmanuelle Bart to his obsessive bid to revive the family porcelain business.
Epic, elegant and expertly acted, this is an object lesson in heritage film-making.
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