Elective Affinities

(LES AFFINITES ELECTIVES)

By DEBORAH YOUNG

Elective Affinities (LES AFFINITES ELECTIVES) (Drama -- French-Italian -- Color) A Filmauro release (in Italy) of a Film Tre, Gierre Film (Rome)/Florida Movies (Paris) co-production, in association with RAI-TV, F3 Cinema and the participation of Canal Plus. (International sales: Sacis.) Produced by Grazia Volpi, Jean-Claude Cecile. Directed, written by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, based on the novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
 
Charlotte ... Isabelle Huppert Edouard ... Jean-Hugues Anglade Othon ... Fabrizio Bentivoglio Ottilie ... Marie Gillain Marquis ... Massimo Popolizio Marquise ... Laura Marinoni Agostina ... Stefania Fuggetta (French dialogue) It is hard at first to see what made Paolo and Vittorio Taviani decide to film Goethe's 1809 novel "Elective Affinities," the story of a married couple coming unhinged when they fall in love with family friends. Lacking the social and political dimension characteristic of the Italian brothers' work, and bereft of their whimsical originality, the film remains an academic retelling of the novel, albeit numerous notches above the average public TV production. Television, however, is where most of pic's audiences likely lie.
 

Theatrically, the 50/50 Italo-French co-production might be lucky enough to ride in on the coattails of the recent rash of quality literary adaptations. But as a great love story it comes across as coldly theoretical.

The most striking thing about the film is the humility and skill with which the directors have transposed Goethe's work to the screen, keeping extremely close to the spirit of the original. The setting has been seamlessly transposed to the Tavianis' native Tuscany, with its beautiful landscapes and villas. Pic was shot in

French (the version Sacis is selling internationally), and, with three French leads, it retains a strong Gallic flavor.

In contrast to the protagonists' confusion, the tale unfolds with near mathematical symmetry, pitting scientific and rational decisions against destiny and other irrational forces. Two aristocrats, Charlotte (Isabelle Huppert) and Edouard (Jean-Hugues Anglade), marry late in life and happily retire to a villa in the country. Their idyll is fatefully interrupted by the arrival of Edouard's best friend, Othon (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), an architect who captures Charlotte's heart, and Ottilie (Marie Gillain), Charlotte's convent-bred adolescent goddaughter, who makes Edouard lose his head.

In a key scene, the four gather to hear Charlotte read a scientific treatise on the unpredictable "affinities" that draw particles of matter together -- a phenomenon they soon have the chance to observe.

Eventually Charlotte and Othon find themselves in love, as do Edouard and Ottilie. Only one problem prevents the couples from regrouping: Charlotte is pregnant by her husband. But it is too late to stop the relationship from coming unbound, with tragic consequences for all.

An uneven cast unbalances the chemistry on which the film hinges. Huppert is constantly interesting as the intelligent, sensitive Charlotte, a mature woman who sees impending disaster without being able to stop it. Though he lacks much of a role, Bentivoglio is a romantic figure and enough of a thinking man -- in contrast to Anglade's reckless and self-indulgent Edouard -- to plausibly attract a woman like Charlotte.

Gillain fails to bridge the distance between contemporary audiences and the 18th-century Ottilie, a religious-minded girl of unshakable will who sees her attraction to Edouard as a grave sin. Severe dresses and tightly wound hair add nothing to her supposed allure, on which the whole plot turns.

"Elective Affinities" contains more conventionally realistic acting than previous Taviani films, but theatrical gestures, like characters abruptly throwing themselves at one another's feet, are unsettling.

It is also puzzling why key scenes, like the accidental drowning of a baby, don't generate more dramatic energy. Instead, the directors choose to plump out the minor role of a serving girl who is wracked by guilt at the death of her mistress. The momentary shift to her viewpoint is very recognizably the directors' personal addition.

Giuseppe Lanci's cinematography, initially sensuous and naturalistic in filming woods and lakes and the enticing outlines of bodies in the night, turns gradually colder to underline the dramatic denouement. Gianni Sbarra's sets are stately but hold a few surprises, like a blue-painted library.

Camera (color), Giuseppe Lanci; editor, Roberto Perpignani; music, Carlo Crivelli; art direction, Gianni Sbarra; set design, Lorenzo D'Ambrosio; costumes, Lina Nerli Taviani; associate producers, Anna Rita Appolloni, Claudio Amram. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (noncompeting), May 17, 1996. Running time: 98 min.