La Captive (The Captive) (2003)

70% of critics liked it
(10 reviews)
36% of users liked it
(249 ratings)

Inspired by Proust's short story La Prisonniere, renowned filmmaker Chantel Akerman creates this challenging meditation on love, desire, and obsession. The film opens with grainy Super-8 footage showing Ariane (Sylvie Testud) and her female friends rollicking on a beach. Now Ariane lives in third… More Inspired by Proust's short story La Prisonniere, renowned filmmaker Chantel Akerman creates this challenging meditation on love, desire, and obsession. The film opens with grainy Super-8 footage showing Ariane (Sylvie Testud) and her female friends rollicking on a beach. Now Ariane lives in third empire splendor in the tony Parisian apartment that her rich significant other Simon (Stanislas Merhar), shares with his grandmother (Francoise Bertin). Simon proves to be a fanatically jealous lover; he subjects her to surveillance and endless questions about her whereabouts. Though Ariane acquiesces to his will, she answers his inquires vaguely to maintain at least a modicum of privacy, which only fuels Simon's suspicions that she is leading a double life as a lesbian. His pain and obsession is further compounded by his own kink: he demands that Ariane be utterly passive (sleeping or pretending to sleep) while he can never quite bring himself to actual physical coupling. When Simon tries to break off the relationship, they end up on a road trip to the sea, resulting in tragic consequences. This film was screened at the Director's Fortnight at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: PG, 1 hr. 58 min.
Directed By: Chantal Akerman
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Mar 28, 2003 Wide
On DVD: Jan 27, 2004
Studio: Gémini Films

Critic Reviews

V.A. Musetto, New York Post
La Captive is so good that it makes amends for A Couch in New York, Akerman's simply dreadful 1996 English-language love story.
Nick Davis, Nick's Flick Picks
For the high-minded, literary, and formally invested viewers who are receptive to how she works and what she worries about, the film offers a starkly insinuating exercise in the contemplation of love.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
... meditative exploration of a dark, obsessive and possessive love.
Ken Fox, TV Guide's Movie Guide
This film represents a perfect match of filmmaker and material.
Jeremy Heilman, MovieMartyr.com
It's like an even more inert version of Antonioni's L'Avventura without the overriding mystery that made that film so compelling and enduring.
David Wood, BBC
A gently captivating, deceptively austere work.
Bob McCabe, Empire Magazine
The investigation into passion is intriguing, but sadly, the solemnity suppresses the fascination.

Read all 7 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Walter M

"La Captive" is an atmospheric and creepy movie, aided by Chantal Akerman's fluid direction, about well, a creep. Simon(Stanislas Merhar) is a bookish, probably also spoiled, wealthy young man who wants to know literally everything which is frankly impossible, even if… More
"La Captive" is an atmospheric and creepy movie, aided by Chantal Akerman's fluid direction, about well, a creep. Simon(Stanislas Merhar) is a bookish, probably also spoiled, wealthy young man who wants to know literally everything which is frankly impossible, even if he were to somehow read every book. This is especially true of someone who does not get out as much as he should. However, in his quest for forbidden knowledge, he does get out to stalk Ariane(Sylvie Testud), following her in his car and on foot. He does know her very well, in fact, as they live together in his spacious apartment that he also shares with his grandmother(Francoise Bertin). While unwilling to let her out of his sight during the day(he has even gone to the trouble of hiring her friend Andree(Olivia Bonamy) to be her companion and report back to him), the same cannot be said of the night. There is sex, of a sort, but little intimacy. In the process, he has completely isolated her from her friends and former career as a singer. Even though we see the entire movie through Simon's eyes, there is every indication that things have gotten so bad that Ariane has no choice in her actions, as the relationship is just as abusive as if it had been violent.
MJS M

One of those sexually explicit art house films the French love to make. This is quite possibly one of the most boring, pretentious, uninspired films I have ever seen. Absolutely nothing happens over the running time of this film, it?s literally just a guy following his girlfriend… More
One of those sexually explicit art house films the French love to make. This is quite possibly one of the most boring, pretentious, uninspired films I have ever seen. Absolutely nothing happens over the running time of this film, it?s literally just a guy following his girlfriend around for two hours. No one in this film acts like an actual human being, they behave like odd robots that exist to make whatever the hell kind of point the director thinks he?s making by deliberately putting the audience to sleep with his plodding non-cinematic style. I?m really open minded about experimental work, but my patience was at an end by halfway through this thing. I even found myself fast-forwarding through parts of the second hour. If I had seen this in the theater I would have walked out after 45 minutes and I would have missed nothing. This is exactly the kind of pretentious bullshit that gives art films a bad name.