L'enfer

Emmanuelle Beart as Sophie discovers she is married to a lying philanderer.

Herald rating: * * * *

An old-fashioned film in the best sense of that phrase, this solid family melodrama is so carefully and deliberately constructed as to feel slightly contrived, but it retains an elemental tragic power, thanks to a quartet of wonderful performances from a roll-call of great modern French stars.

The film, whose title means Hell, is the second in a trilogy conceived and written by the late, great Krzysztof Kieslowski and scripted by his long-time collaborator Krzysztof Piesiewicz. The first film, Heaven, directed by Tom (Run, Lola, Run) Tykwer and starring Cate Blanchett was, after its brilliantly orchestrated opening stanzas, an empty-headed, implausible, love-on-the-run thriller.

For this one, though, Tanovic, the Bosnian writer-director of the absurdist Oscar-winner No Man's Land, is in charge and the result is a family drama of substance. The extent to which it agrees with you may depend on how you regard Kieslowski, whose masterwork remains a 10-film cycle based on the Commandments.

The hell in this film exists inside the head of the four women whose story it tells. Three are sisters who have drifted apart since a traumatic childhood incident which is hinted at in the opening scene but not explained until near the end; the fourth is the mother, wheelchair-bound and grimly mute, but the reason for her sorry state is likewise unclear until late in the piece.

Kieslowski conceives of the women as equally but differently scarred by what happened. Sophie (Beart) has married a lying philanderer; Anne (Gillain) is having an affair with one her professors (a man old enough to be her best friend's father) and seems oblivious that he is trying to shake her off; Celine (Viard, the bemused wife from The Ax) is the film's most complicated character, putting her life on hold to care for her mother. And then there's Mum.

In its preoccupation with destiny and coincidence and its focus - right from the title sequence - on how casually and monstrously the bonds of blood are betrayed, L'Enfer busies itself with some pretty heavy material.

In referencing Medea, the story of a woman who sought revenge on the husband who betrayed her, it stands on solid symbolic ground but the story has a surprise in store.

If that makes for an ending more satisfying than electrifying that's all of a piece with the film's grandly theatrical conception. It lacks the ineffable subtleties of Kieslowski's later work, but it's as gripping as hell and showcases four great actresses at the top of their game. Recommended.

Cast: Emmanuelle Beart, Karin Viard, Marie Gillain, Carole Bouquet
Director: Danis Tanovic
Running time: 101 minutes
Rating: M, contains nudity
Screening: Rialto
Verdict: A solid if slightly contrived European melodrama driven by a quartet of fine performances