REVIEW: DVD Release: Leaving

Film: Leaving
Release date: 29th November 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 85 mins
Director: Catherine Corsini
Starring: Kristin Scott Thomas, Sergi López, Yvan Attal, Bernard Blancan, Aladin Reibel
Genre: Drama/Romance
Studio: Metrodome
Format: DVD
Country: France

Leaving’s subject matter of an affair between a disaffected, middle aged, middle class housewife and a younger, working class man sounds an over familiar tale, but there is an unexpected sting.

The apparent perfection of Suzanne’s life is superficial. Her elegant appearance, marriage to an affluent doctor and stylish home provide a tastefully minimalist mask for the emotional emptiness of her existence. Like many a fictional heroine before her, her identity is subsumed in her role as housewife and mother.

When workmen are brought in to construct a studio where Suzanne will pursue her new career as a physiotherapist, she grows close to one of the workmen, Ivan, and embarks on an affair with him. So far, so unremarkable, but the film takes a far darker path than the romantic escapism that might be the expected consequence of its premise.

When Suzanne leaves her family for her lover, her husband reacts violently, and uses his contacts and influence to cut off the couple from any means of earning a living. Driven to near starvation, Suzanne grows increasingly desperate, determined to stay with her lover at any cost. Familial relationships disintegrate and the norms of behaviour are disregarded, culminating in a dramatic denouement…


The film’s apparently romantic theme is belied by a pervasive austerity, in its dialogue, cinematography and its clear-eyed, unsentimental characterisation. The dialogue is fairly unremarkable, and there’s a banal ugliness to some of the scenes that seems deliberate – the tinny sound of a van door closing, or the shabby surroundings of Ivan’s flat. When scenes occur within a beautiful setting, these standout all the more, and they are all associated with Suzanne’s feelings for Ivan – contemplating escape together among the thickly wooded, majestic hills of Languedoc-Roussillon, or watching Ivan’s daughter playing in the sea as sunshine bounces off the waves.

The house of Suzanne’s white coat clad husband is bathed in a blue and northern light, which appears uncomfortably wintry and sterile in contrast to the warm sunshine associated with Suzanne’s lover. The initial scenes of the film, setting up the context of Suzanne’s family life, are interspersed with a blank black screen, and these moments seem to last fractionally too long, creating an uncomfortable sense of the silence and emptiness within the family. As Suzanne’s affection for Ivan grows, these blank interludes appear to diminish.

The role of Suzanne was created for Kristin Scott Thomas, and this gives some indication of the intentions of director Catherine Corsini. In the hands of a lesser actress, the film could have descended into the realms of TV drama, but Scott Thomas is one of those actors who can create a performance that is more than the sum of its parts, and Corsini obviously had this in mind when creating the role. Scott Thomas conveys typical French poise at the film’s beginning, so her transformation from chic to shabby is all the more shocking. Her portrayal of Suzanne’s blossoming affection for Ivan is warm and naturalistic, and she convincingly conveys the indignity that sexual obsession can bring about, a desperation and growing irrationalism which provokes our sympathy, as Suzanne’s behaviour plays havoc with the insincere politeness’s of bourgeois family life.

Scott Thomas’ compelling performance means that Corsini doesn’t have to use the sentiment of poetic dialogue or overblown cinematography to give the story its magnetism, with the result that the film’s depiction of the realities of marital infidelity is more realistic and disturbing than you would expect at its outset. Sergi Lopez, as Ivan, and Yvan Attal, as Suzanne’s husband Samuel, both provide excellent supporting performances. We’re denied the satisfaction of making black-and-white judgements on these characters as they are, unsettlingly, too subtly shaded for that. Ivan seems patient and affectionate, but we learn little of his past – Suzanne discovers that he has been in prison, but not why. Samuel’s reaction to Suzanne’s declaration that she is leaving him is frighteningly violent, and his continued persecution of her and her lover displays a vindictiveness that leaves no room for compassion. But this viciousness is tempered by earlier scenes in which Samuel shows a tender concern for Suzanne, and the humiliation of his situation makes his behaviour understandable, if still unpalatable at best.

There’s a pared down fatalism to the film which has echoes of classical tragedy, which looked with a similarly dispassionate eye at the loves and losses of the human soul. But despite – or because of – the film’s austere heart, and despite the fine performances of its cast, there’s something lacking in Leaving. When Suzanne’s actions become so desperate that in them you can see the seed of her self-destruction, it becomes increasingly hard to sympathise with her. Without that strong engagement with her character, and in the absence of any compensatory strength in Ivan or warmth in Samuel, you begin to feel distanced from the film. It ultimately substitutes subtlety for the grander gestures of sacrifice.


Leaving’s unexpectedly nasty edge renders its depiction of sexual obsession, marital infidelity and disintegrating family life compelling and disturbing in equal measure. Scott Thomas’ strong performance lends a truthfulness and warmth to the film, but the violently irrational development of her character fails to convince. A fine film rather than a great one. KR