Elective Affinities (1996)

The adaptation by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe novel, set in Italy during the Napoleonic era, stars Isabelle Huppert as Carlotta, a woman who encounters Edward (Jean-Hughes Anglade), a man she had loved two decades before. The couple, delighted to find one another again, decide to marry, and live happily on Edward's remote estate. When Edward hears from his friend Otto (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), an architect, he invites him to come and spend some time at the estate. To balance the equation, Carlotta asks her teenaged goddaughter Ottilia (Marie Gillain) to join them. One night they read a text aloud which describes the way similar substances in nature are drawn to each other through "elective affinities," and it's not long before the couples are enacting the theory. Edward and Ottilia find a natural attraction between themselves, as do Carlotta and Otto. The visitors eventually depart, as does Edward, fulfilling his military duty. After some months, Carlotta bears Edward's child, whose appearance raises a number of interesting questions. Goethe's novel on themes of love, marriage, passion, and fidelity is given a sumptuous production by the directors, who elicit fine performances from their cast in a film which evinces the subtley and nuance that is typical of their work.