Moderato cantabile

This dark, minimalist gem in black-and-white is host to a Jeanne Moreau in full bloom and a young Jean-Paul Belmondo. Both iconic actors inhabit this adaptation of Marguerite Duras’ novel of the same name, for which she helped write the script. The rich, married Anne Desbaresdes meets the working-class Chauvin – an ill-fated encounter ignited by curiosity about the crime of passion Chauvin witnesses at a bar near the port, just below where Anne was watching her small son take a piano lesson. A singular triangle develops – man/woman/murder story. Anne is fascinated by the crime, which becomes their main concern. This dark aspect is leavened by the charm of relationship with her son, as she marvels again and again at his existence and admires his childish struggles to remain authentic. Peter Brook preserves the unique Duras logic and her atmospheric world, constructing an invisible double of both in his adaptation, masterfully transposing the story’s melancholy and despair into the no-less melancholic landscape of a provincial sea- side town via slow, sumptuous travelling shots. At some point, it’s impossible to distinguish between the external scenery and the inner landscape of the characters as they reflect and mirror each other. (Victoria Slavuski)