In one of his final film roles, Guillaume Depardieu brings all of his scruffy charm to the character of Bruno, a small-time criminal living among a group of motley thieves. He encounters Isabelle (Florence Loiret-Caille), a German teacher, just after she’s been hit by a car. They meet again and become lovers. As the cops close in on Bruno, the couple takes to the woods and the film shifts from small-town portrait to romantic-pastoral idyll. It’s a tricky gambit, but writer/director Sarah Leonor pulls it off with aplomb. The first section uses very little music or extraneous details, paring Bruno’s and Isabelle’s lives to their essentials. The latter half is lighter and funnier with strange songs and beautiful countryside forming the backdrop to their languorous days. The puzzle of which environment is better—more “real”—is one of the tantalizing questions posed by this assured and visually compelling work.


Written by Sarah Leonor, Emmanuelle Jacob. Photographed by Laurent Desmet. With Guillaume Depardieu, Florence Loiret-Caille (96 min, EastWest Film Distribution).