Gabrielle (2006)

Image credit: Gabrielle: Luc Roux/Studio Magazine

HUPPERT CLASS A turn-of-the-century society wife breaks out of her shell in Gabrielle

Although the kinds of women she plays often appear armored and implacable (even while punishing themselves for their own desires), Isabelle Huppert is stripped psychologically bare in Gabrielle, Patrice Chéreau's dreamlike interpretation of Joseph Conrad's short story ''The Return.'' Working with costar Pascal Greggory (Queen Margot), Huppert conveys the awakening of a turn-of-the-century society wife whose crime isn't in leaving her husband, but in changing her mind after she's left. The swirl of Eric Gautier's cinematography sometimes overtakes the convolutions of the script. But Greggory anchors Gabrielle in manly bewilderment and rage, while Huppert claws the title character's way to self-awareness.