Before the Winter Chill (2013)

Crappy film

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Director Philippe Claudel has also written the script which mixes film genres to great effect. He pulls it off with a most unlikely plot with the help of great acting work from Daniel Auteuil, Kristin Scott Thomas and the sad-eyed and lovely Leila Bekhti. This is a mystery without a crime and a romantic triangle of sorts completely without sex. That alone makes this film unwatchable for many and quite challenging for all. The main character as played by Auteuil is a surgeon of about 60 years whose life has been his work. A chance meeting, as it seems, with a lovely young woman rocks him off his tracks. Auteuil begins to doubt if his life has been meaningful at all and is drawn to the vitality of the young woman who appears to have similar traumas as he has had in his earlier life. At times the audience may be as lost as Auteuil's poor character, wondering what is going on and where on earth is Mr. Claudel taking us. The director was 51 when the film was made, and being about 60 myself I can't help thinking that this film is about aging of men and dealing with it more than anything else. Few have commented on the very difficult role of the tormented siren tempting the aging surgeon. I cannot imagine a better choice for this role than Leila Bekhti, who gives it much more credibility and much more a sense of mystery than it would have on paper. So the ninth point goes for her contribution. If you give Before the Winter Chill your full attention, it will stay on your mind and intrigue you for quite a while.

French Neurosurgeon Paul (Auteil) and his English wife Lucia (Scott Thomas) have a chilly marriage going. Lucia keeps complaining she is not fulfilled, she's bored as if it is all Paul's fault. Their son is grown with a child of his own. Everything appears stilted, strained. It is difficult to engage with them, their lives are so bourgeoisie and privileged.There's a café close to Paul's office where a young Algerian server - another Lou (Bekthi) - tells him he operated on her as a young girl which he denies as it's not his field of surgery.That's the set up. Paul starts to stalk her, finds out she's a prostitute and a liar.I imagine the deeper meaning is that he is hunting for his past but it is all a terrible muddle in the end. The script falls apart in the police station as it pushes the disbelief metre several feet off the ground.Don't waste your time even though the leads give it their almighty best. It just never gelled for me.4 out of 10.

I watched it to complete Leila's filmography but this movie is so far her worst participation. It's not that she's bad because for one time she acts beyond her roots but this movie is just meaningless. It collects all the same, old, abused and boring clichés of French drama as it's about the hollow life of a bourgeois couple: we have their total traits: the housewife, the prestigious doctor husband, the tennis matches, the opera, the on shoulders pull, the successful kids and even if they got all this, they feel empty, they are unable to communicate and they want to add fire to their « poor » life. Sure, every body shares this spleen for a perfect life, a life when dreams come true but on the other hand, i really don't care about the bed stories of the bourgeois. It's all the more painful here that practically all the scenes are totally useless as the characters sits, walks, drives alone and in the silence ! Maybe some appreciate this but sorry I skip it

I saw this film at the Leiden film festival 2013 (LIFF). This could have been the umpteenth story about a middle aged man courting a younger woman, thereby endangering not only his marriage but also risking the health of his patients while slacking off his daily job as a surgeon. But luckily it is much more, due to some complications interwoven in the script that make it interesting nevertheless.The daily package of red roses that are delivered throughout the running time of the film, seems important and thus are we eager all the time to know who is behind it. In the end we still wonder who is sending the roses, however, but it does not really matter in hindsight as many other sub-plots take over and keep us interested.A possible minus point is the shallow role of the surgeon's wife. She has typically not enough on her hands other than waiting for her husband to come home. Her garden is her only daily occupation that keeps her from complete boredom, so it seems. I had assumed more initiative from her side, as she is obviously not the unlearned and meek kind of woman.All in all, I can only moderately recommend this film. It is not a total failure, however, due to several sub-plots that keeps us interested. But that is all there is. This film ranked a moderate 26th place (out of 55) for the audience award.