| A Heart in Winter | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| French | Un cœur en hiver |
| Directed by | Claude Sautet |
| Written by |
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| Produced by | Philippe Carcassonne |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Yves Angelo |
| Edited by | Jacqueline Thiédot |
| Music by | Maurice Ravel |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | AFMD |
Release date |
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Running time | 105 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Box office | $11.7 million[1] |
A Heart in Winter (French:Un cœur en hiver) is a 1992 Frenchromantic drama film co-written and directed byClaude Sautet. It starsDaniel Auteuil,Emmanuelle Béart andAndré Dussollier. It was chosen to compete at the49th Venice International Film Festival,[2] where it won four awards and tied with theSilver Lion. It was nominated forBest Film Not in the English Language at the47th British Academy Film Awards.
It was the second-to-last film by Sautet. He reunited with Béart on his final feature, 1995'sNelly and Mr. Arnaud.
Highly regarded violin restorer Stéphane works and plays squash with his longtime business partner Maxime. After Maxime, who is married, begins a relationship with concert violinist Camille, Stéphane is called in to do some urgent repairs on Camille's violin. Camille begins to fall for Stéphane, and reveals the truth to Maxime. Stéphane's cool reaction confuses Camille, and she lashes out at him for denying his feelings.[3]
Principal photography began on 21 October 1991 to 28 January 1992.[4]
The film features several performances of chamber music byMaurice Ravel, played byJean-Jacques Kantorow (violin),Howard Shelley (piano) andKeith Harvey (cello). New Zealand musicianJeffrey Grice appears in the film in the role of the pianist.[5]
The film contains only excerpts of Ravel compositions, but the soundtrack album includes them in their entirety, performed byJean-Jacques Kantorow (violin),Philippe Muller (cello) andJacques Rouvier (piano). A fourth Ravel composition not excerpted in the film,Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré, is on the soundtrack album. The film helped further populariseRavel's Piano Trio. The track listing:
Emmanuelle Béart practised violin for at least a year before the film began shooting, so that she could convincingly mime the performance sequences.
Béart and Auteuil were in a relationship, and married during the making of this film.
Claude Sautet based it on his memories of readingMikhail Lermontov's "Princess Mary".
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 85% based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10.[6]
Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times gave the film 3.5 out of 4, and wrote that the film "has the intensity and delicacy of a great short story."[7]
