Le Divorce is a 2003 American romantic drama comedy film directed by James Ivory from a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and Ivory, based on 1997 novel of the same name by Diane Johnson.
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Plot
Isabel Walker (Kate Hudson) travels to Paris to visit her sister Roxy (Naomi Watts), a poet who lives with her husband, the French Charles-Henri de Persand (Melvil Poupaud), and their young daughter, Gennie. Roxy is pregnant, but her husband has just come out without explanation. Isabel discovers that she has a mistress, a Russian woman named Magda Tellman, whom she wants to marry after getting a divorce from Roxy. Roxy refuses to divorce her.
Roxy also has a Saint Ursula painting by Georges de La Tour; the painting belonged to the Walker family, but because of his marriage to Charles-Henri and the French property law of society, ownership was debated between two families. Louvre thought the painting was worthless and concluded that it was not a real La Tour. However, J. Paul Getty Museum paid attention to the painting and the curator believed that the painting was made by La Tour itself.
The Paris-based American writer Olivia Pace (Glenn Close), a friend of Roxy, offers Isabel a job. Isabel also meets Yves (Romain Duris), giorgio Olivia, and they start dating. The sisters visited the Charles-Henri family home for Sunday lunch, where Isabel met Charles's mother-Henri, Suzanne (Leslie Caron), and her handsome brother-in-law, Edgar (Thierry Lhermitte). Isabel was attracted to Edgar who was older, rich and married and they started cheating, though Isabel continued to embrace Yves. Edgar began sending Isabel various gifts, including the expensive red Kelly's bag, which Isabel brought with him all the time. During the visit to Isabel, Suzanne finds Kelly's bag, after which she realizes that Edgar is having an affair with Isabel.
Charles-Henri maintains a blasÃÆ'Â © attitude about his affair and insists on divorce. He also hopes to benefit from French property law laws in divorce, especially with regard to La Tour's painting. Her lover Magda married a man named Tellman (Matthew Modine), who began stalking and harassing Isabel and Roxy, believing the latter was responsible for her wife's desertion. Charles-Henri's cruelty and insensitivity brought the victim to Roxy, and he tried to commit suicide late in pregnancy. He survived and was supported by Isabel and his lawyer Bertram.
The Roxy and Isabel families came from the United States to support the sisters, and also discussed the divorce and ownership of La Tour's paintings. Things get complicated when Edgar's wife, Amà © Å © lie, finds an affair through Suzanne. After lunch with the two families, Suzanne and Amà © n personally told Isabel's mother about her affair; he then faces Isabel with this information.
During the streets, Magda and Charles-Henri tease Tellman with their new relationship. Later, they were both killed by Tellman in the evil of desire, with Charles-Henri's body found in Roxy's apartment complex. Roxy and Bertram come to the scene and stress causes her to give birth. Tellman then follows Isabel and his family on a walk to the Eiffel Tower, where he cornered them and pulled a gun, demanding an opportunity to explain to Roxy why he killed her husband. After some persuasion, the desperate Tellman unleashed a gun to Isabel, who stuffed it into Kelly's bag and tossed it into the Eiffel Tower.
Edgar, cajoled by the attention of the socially conscious family, and exhausted his young lover, casually ends his relationship with Isabel with Chanel's scarf and lunch. After that, Isabel starts a real relationship with Yves. After Roxy's baby was born, he married Bertram. The family attended an art auction where La Tour's painting was sold to The Getty for 4.5 million Euros. Since his ownership was no longer controversial due to Charles-Henri's death, the money went to the Walker family, which then proceeded to establish the "Fondation Sainte Ursule" (The Saint Ursula Foundation).
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Cast
- Kate Hudson as Isabel Walker
- Naomi Watts as Roxeanne de Persand
- Glenn Close as Olivia Pace
- Marie-Christine Adam as AmÃÆ'Â © lie Cosset
- Thierry Lhermitte as Edgar Cosset
- Melvil Poupaud as Charles-Henri de Persand
- Matthew Modine as Tellman
- Sam Waterston as Chester Walker
- Stockard Channing as Margeeve Walker
- Thomas Lennon as Roger Walker
- Jean-Marc Barr as Maitre Bertram
- Romain Duris as Yves
- Catherine Samie as Madame Florian
- EsmÃÆ' Â © e Buchet-DeÃÆ'k as Gennie de Persand
- Samuel Labarthe as Antoine de Persand
- Leslie Caron as Suzanne de Persand
- Nathalie Richard as Charlotte de Persand
- Bebe Neuwirth as Julia Manchevering
- Rona Hartner as Magda Tellman
- Stephen Fry as Piers Janely
- Peter Wyckoff as de Persand Child
Locations
Le Divorce was filmed in Paris at the site including Cafà © de Flore, Tour Eiffel, Musà ©  © e du Louvre, and Salle Gaveau. Eiffel Tower elevators, stairs and various levels look very close to the end of the film.
Music
The opening title of the music is Paul Misraki's "Qu'est-ce qu'on attend pour ÃÆ'ªtre heureux", sung by Patrick Bruel and Johnny Hallyday from Bruel's "Entre deux" CD. The final music title is Serge Gainsbourg's "L'Anamour", sung by Jane Birkin from the "Jane Version" CD.
Release
Reception
Le Divorce was given a limited initial release on August 8, 2003, in 34 theaters, where it earned $ 516,834 on its opening weekend. It became a widespread release on August 29, 2003, in 701 theaters, where it earned $ 1.5M on its opening weekend. The film then generates $ 9 million in North America and $ 3.9M worldwide, totaling $ 12.9 million worldwide.
Critical response
Le Divorce mostly got negative reviews. It has a 38% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 51 Metascores on Metacritic. Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film three of the four stars and felt that the film was not "working at the desired level, because we do not care enough about the interaction of the big players, but it works in other ways, as sophisticated and vast portrait values ​​in crash ". In his review for The New York Times , A.O. Scott wrote, "Like that, Le Divorce is tasteful, but almost entirely flavorless.This is hard work to sit through the comedy made by the filmmaker with a little sense of time and no sense of humor. ". Entertainment Weekly gave the film a rating of "C" and Owen Gleiberman wrote, "I'm disappointed to report that Hudson and Watts have no chemistry as sisters, perhaps because Watts never looked like an expatriate artist he thought he was supposed to play ". In his review for Village Voice, David Ng wrote, "Indeed, showing the cargo of intercontinental submarine ships that have little to do, Le Divorce unconsciously embodies a special bilingual environment. At worst, it shows a luxurious wraparound documentary film ". Glenn Kenny, Premiere magazine , gave the film three of four stars and wrote, "the picture is a great result for Ivory and company, as well as a warm welcome to Kate Hudson, who has a luminous talent, I am afraid, will hidden under the thrill of a silly romantic Hollywood comedy for the future ". In his review for The New York Observer, Andrew Sarris wrote, "The greatest achievement of this film, however, is in keeping confusing characters with one another without violations of good behavior, and without decreasing to facilitate stereotypes and caricatures ".
See also
- Theaters of the United States
References
External links
- Le Divorce at IMDb
- Le Divorce at AllMovie
- Le Divorce at Rotten Tomatoes
- Le Divorce in Metacritic
- Le Divorce in Box Office Mojo
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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