A Heart in Winter (1992)

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This film is not for everyone, but it is in my top 20 of all time (that has Inception as number 1, if you were wondering).There's so much in this film that I don't even know where to start. It's a love-triangle of sorts. It's a game of one-upmanship. It's the lack of bro-code. It's love, it's envy. It's two people at the top of their game, a virtuoso violinist and her equivalent in the luthier business.This film is like instrumental music. There are so many interpretations and they're all equally right.A top violinist, Camille, falls in love with her luthier, Stephane, despite her having a boyfriend in his businessman of a partner, Maxime? Or is it simply the attraction of top professionals to each other? Stephane says it was just a game to see if he could steal her from Maxime, just for the thrill. But why was Camille attracted to him? Why was this beautiful, talented woman attracted to Stephane? She's irresistible to anyone, but not to him. Maybe she wants what she cannot have.Stephane is not just unmoved by her throwing herself at him, he pushes her away. Although it is not said in the film, Stephane appears to be autistic. He is indifferent to Camille's interest towards him, has no feelings of friendship towards Maxime, and only feels emotion towards his mentor who was severely ill and dying. Stephane is so "heartless" that he was left to assist his mentor in euthanasia, while no one else could.Stephane is an autist in a non-autistic world. He is not understood and people constantly accuse him of faking it, of being a sham. Camille said "no one is like this" but he is. He isn't acting. Everything he does is logical and makes sense. He's a professional at the top of his profession. He has a protégé doing an internship. He has a business partner in a shared venture and then his own private business. He has normal conversations. He enjoys music.It is everyone else who appear mad in his eyes. Camille for throwing her relationship for nothing. Maxime who attacks his friend and loses his partner over nothing. His mentor's rocky relationship with his wife. Stephane is sane and calm, living a life without highs or lows. That's what no one else gets.Ironically the only time Stephane attempts something illogical and non-autistic, the game of stealing Camille's heart, that's the only time that everything backfires or completely falls apart. Winning the game cost him his business and non-friendship with Maxime, he lost his friendship with Camille and got yelled at, screamed at and hit in public.There are films with random things added by checklist to reach certain demographics. This is not one of them. Everything is interconnected like Celtic knots. The music thread runs through the film, as a soundtrack and as the plot. Stephane repairs violins, that's how he meets Camille, he attends her rehearsal and recording sessions. He loves music and her music. She admires his professionalism and enjoys his attention. When things fall apart, she jeopardizes her career, almost risking the cancellation of a tour. Everyone is connected to everyone, there are no loose threads or random sub-plots.Sautet builds a world to tell this story. The only sad thing is that it ends so soon. This is a must watch film. 10/10.Sadly, this great film is very difficult to get. The DVD is low quality and is region-locked. The film is not available on Blu-Ray. Not on Netflix. Not on Amazon or iTunes. It is available in iTunes France, but you have to have a French credit card to buy it. It's insanely complicated to get this film. The rights owners should do something to make it a tad easier.This film has an amazing soundtrack that was released on CD. Now it has disappeared. You could look for it used, but it's hard finding it. It's not on Spotify or iTunes.

This is the kind of movie that requires time to "digest" what you see and time is something we can't afford today, perhaps not really time, but patience. The movie strikes by its beautiful music and by superb acting of Beart and Auteuil. Also strikes by not having a conventional ending, a predictable one. The portrayal of the young violinist star by Beart is breathtaking. She captures the whole picture with her facial expressions, giving deep substance to her character. Camille is not a common woman, superficial with well known "needs" that are/aren't fulfilled by the end of the plot. She teaches the audience about the mysterious woman soul. Their meeting is that kind of a chance you got only once in your life. Her eyes says it all, most of the times. Auteuil plays the (also) mysterious violin crafter master, a rather discrete character that never exposes his intimate feelings. This is something remarkable on this movie, that we never know if Stephane is really good in hiding his feelings, or simply doesn't have them to the extent that he is supposed to. I mean... who could resist Camille? Another thing I love about this movie is the "undefined" relationship between the 3 main characters. Socially we know exactly how they are, but in reality, the delimiting lines are dotted. The movie allows its characters to live a "life on their own" and does not lead to any conclusion, does not judge them in any way. I have to mention Cesar's winning (!) Dussollier's performance of a middle aged man in love with a much younger woman. He is... wise and allows the plot to develop. It is also remarkable how the author manages not to fall into the prosaic love triangle by constructing Maxime. He could have easily force it one way or another, make Camille chose (how many time we saw this in movies...) or confronting Stephane, but these are all clichés that you won't find it here. For all of this I rank it 8 and recommend it to anyone tired of superheroes and fast paced special effects.

I wasn't planning to write a comment, just leave my abysmal vote and walk away in disgust, but seeing the utter imbalance of other comments I felt compelled to add mine. Normally IMDb ratings are an excellent guide, and I rented this movie on the basis of its high rating, but in this case it was totally misleading.This has to be the most boring, lifeless, dreary film I've ever seen. The premise is good enough: two men run a violin repair shop, one is having an affair with a lovely young violinist, but then she develops a relationship with the other one.Problem is, not one of these characters (nor any of the subordinate ones) have anything interesting or attractive or charming or in any way endearing about them. They are all just puppets and shadows going through the motions of life. There's no emotion anywhere, not in either of the love triangle's two relationships. The entire movie consists of endless, mindless, pointless dialogue about this and that and everything and nothing. There's nothing erotic or engaging or in any way attractive. The only soundtrack is when the violinist is playing music, so all that inane dialogue drones on and on without anything to hide it behind. And even the violin music is awful (it's all Ravel chamber music). It's a French film, so one expects it to be depressing, but I didn't expect it to be so dreary and wearisome.I'd have given this 1 star, except that the few scenes where they show some of the mechanics of the luthier's art are decently interesting. Otherwise, don't waste any time with this grossly overrated and self-inflated piece of dross.

Not many movies can draw a parallel between music and love with such delicate refinement as Sautet's Un Coeur en Hiver. The film revolves around an unspoken unrequited love between Stephane (Auteuil), a violin craftsman, and the beautiful Camille (Béart), a violin virtuoso and also his patron's lover. For some reason, either out of loyalty to his friend, fear of commitment or a conviction that he does not deserve anything as perfect, or maybe a mixture of all three, Stephane pulls away. He not only pulls away, he does it with such ruthlessness that comes in complete contradiction with his character. A character that holds a violin as if it were the most fragile item in the world, and yet does not hesitate to shatter a woman's heart by simply saying, "I have decided to seduce you without loving you." But in the end, as he himself realizes, he is only destroying himself. This movie makes me fall in love with French cinema all over again.