Review of La Veuve De Saint Pierre

Introduction

La Veuve (Widow) de Saint-Pierre is a French/Canadian film set on Dog Island, off the coast of Newfoundland in 1850. Emir Kusturica is Neel, a convicted murder who is sentenced to the guillotine.

Just one problem. There isn`t a guillotine on Dog Island and, even if there was, there is no executioner.

While this unsatisfactory state of affairs is being addressed Neel is left in the care of the liberal Captain (Daniel Auteuil) and his wife (Juliete Binoche). The Captain`s wife tries to rehabilitate Neel with pretty spectacular effect. Neel becomes the darling of the island, eventually marrying one of the (many) widows of the island.

Then the guillotine arrives.

Video

Visually, this is a muted and subdued film. Colours are dull and earthy and this is entirely appropriate to the setting and the mood. Given the limited palette, the visuals are, at times, quite striking. There are some excellent scenes in the snow. Also, for a relatively gentle and restrained film, some of the cutting and camera work is fast and edgy.

The visuals are well served by the 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer, which is crisp and clear. Good.

Audio

The soundtrack is DD 2.0 and fairly unspectacular. It is mostly dialogue driven with a few sparse ambient effects. I suppose it is effective but it is all fairly understated. Just like the film, I guess.

The same goes for the soundtrack by Pascal Esteve, who strives for mood over melody. Again, I suppose it is fairly effective but it is pretty much background stuff; you never really notice it.

Features

All you get is a trailer. Not really worthy of the title “Extra Feature”.

Conclusion

La Veuve de Saint-Pierre is one of those worthy foreign films that I often feel obliged to like. And I did up to a point. Visually it is subdued but effective. The performances from the 3 leads (Binoche, Auteuil and Kusturica) are all good, especially Binoche and Auteuil. But, as a package, it doesn’t really hang together.

The basic problem is that it isn’t really that interesting. It certainly doesn’t engage you. While the performances are good, the characters are unsympathetic and unbelievable. The Kusturica character is particularly unbelievable. He goes from brutal murderer to docile gardener and darling of the village in a matter of days. Sure, he’s repentant but you just don’t believe in the change.

Plot wise, there’s not much going on. The film lasts 107 minutes but it feels protracted, as if there’s just 50 minutes worth of material and the remainder is padding.

If you like period dramas, you’ll probably get something from this. For the rest, it’ll be filed under “Worthy but Dull”.