Stars: Juliette Binoche, Daniel Auteuil, Michel Duchaussoy, Marc Beland, Christian Charmetant, Philippe Du Janerand, Emir Kusturica, Philippe Magnan

Director: Patrice Leconte

Summary: In 1950, on a small island near Canada, Neel Auguste is found guilty and condemned to death. Unfortunately the authorities have to wait for a guillotine to arrive from France for the execution. Neel is placed under the custody of the Captain and his wife and slowly the condemned man's popularity soars. But then the guillotine arrives.

This dark drama explores a true tale set in 1850 on the isolated French-Canadian island of St. Pierre. Yugoslav director Emir Kustirica makes a fabulous acting debut as Neele August, an illiterate fisherman who brutally murders his ex-fishing captain in a night of drunken revelry. Sentenced to death, August cannot be killed until the remote island governor imports a used guillotine from the French government. While awaiting the arrival of the "widow," August is placed under the care of the reticent, iconoclastic Captain Jean (Daniel Auteuil) and his freethinking wife, Pauline (Juliette Binoche). Under Pauline's direction, August becomes a devoted social servant whose heroic deeds place the island's female population solidly against his death sentence.
The film's costuming and art direction are accomplished, setting the stage for Eduardo Serra's gorgeous landscape cinematography, at its best amongst the dreary seasonal changes of the remote island. Low angles, hand-held camerawork, and consistently foggy skies create a seasick feeling as director Patrice Leconte's pained attention to Jean's horse and the society surrounding the main characters elevates the film from a tidy chamber drama into a visually engaging philosophical discourse.

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The "widow" referred to in the title of La Veuve de Saint-Pierreisn't a woman, but a mechanism--to be exact, the guillotine, (though the title does take on a second meaning in the tragic final moments of the film). We're on the island of Saint-Pierre, a tiny forgotten French colony off the coast of Newfoundland, midway through the 19th century. A senseless drunken murder is committed and the killer is condemned to death, but zut alors!, there's no guillotine on the island. So one must be requested from the slow, bureaucratic authorities in Paris and, once approved, laboriously shipped over. Meanwhile the killer, a simple-minded giant of a man, is placed in the custody of the Captain, whose beautiful wife starts taking an interest in the prisoner.

Director Patrice Leconte has always had an acute feel for place and period--he directed the mordantly witty costume drama Ridicule--and La Veuvevividly captures the sense of remoteness and resentful isolation of this blizzard-swept community. The brooding landscape, all slate-blues and greys, is beautifully framed by Eduardo Serra's camera, and Leconte draws affecting performances from his central trio of actors: Daniel Auteuil, with his intriguingly lopsided face, as the Captain; Juliette Binoche, radiantly vulnerable as his wife; and, in an unexpected but remarkably successful bit of casting, Serbian film director Emir Kusturica as the condemned man. La Veuve de Saint-Pierremay be a touch over-solemn at times, and its message is hardly unexpected; but it's an intelligent, engrossing and richly atmospheric piece of filmmaking. --Philip Kemp

Aspect Ratio:	2.35 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	French
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Theatrical Trailer
Subtitles:	English
Year:	2000
Release Date:	May 1, 2002
Runtime:	107 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	C C D 8994
Label:	Film Four Distributors
Keywords:	Widow, General, Wide, Screen, Saint, Drama, La, Pierre, De, Veuve
Genre:	Drama