A dying genius watches his wife fall for his protégé—classical music's messiest love triangle.
Inspired by the life of 19th century composer Robert Schumann, this fiction tells the decline of Hans Richter, a great German musician. Then dying, he feels his reason leaving him, while his wife gets closer to his disciple, Friedrich Turner, who has endless admiration for him. After his death, Turner helped make him a legend.
Acting
Emmanuelle Riva's glances contain entire dissertations.
Cinematography
Shadows that swallow rooms whole—proper Gothic stuff.
Costume
Corsets and cravats so suffocating you feel them.
Director
Marcel Cravenne
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Cravenne filmed during the May '68 protests, lending the Richter household's collapse an unconscious resonance with France's own institutional crisis.
Alain Cuny and Emmanuelle Riva had played lovers in 'Hiroshima mon amour' nine years prior; their brittle marriage here reads as that passion's ghost.
FR
