Gabrielle

...a bravura exercise in shifting power dynamics, punctuated by bold stylistic touches such as jolting cuts from color to black-and-white, dramatic swells in the classical score, and screen-spanning intertitles...

A middle-aged French couple in turn of the century France suffer a complete marital breakdown.

Chéreau is in any case reluctant to let the acting speak for itself: with switches to monochrome, inter-titles and loud orchestral passages under the dialogue.

...the real excitement here is watching Jean and Gabrielle unravel in startlingly different ways—he explodes, she implodes.

Director Patrice Chéreau (Intimacy) explores the emotions that overwhelm characters usually governed by social convention.