The Story of Marie and Julien

The Story of Marie and Julien French Histoire de Marie et Julien is a 2003 French drama film directed by Nouvelle Vague film maker Jacques Rivette. The film slowly develops from a drama about blackmail into a dark, yet tender, supernatural love story between Marie and Julien, played by Emmanuelle Bart and Jerzy Radziwiowicz. Anne Brochet plays the blackmailed Madame X. Bart had previously worked with Rivette in La Belle Noiseuse, as had Radziwiowicz in Secret dfense. The cinematographer was William Lubtchansky.

Julien Radziwilowicz is a middleaged clockmaker who lives alone with his cat in a large house in the Paris suburbs. Julien is blackmailing Madame X Brochet who is importing fake antique Chinese silks, and may have murdered her sister. By chance, he meets Marie Bart, a beautiful young woman he last saw a year ago, and they begin a passionate relationship. Though elusive, Marie agrees to move in with him she acts strangely at times and appears absent. A mystery connects Marie to Madame Xs dead sister and in uncovering Maries secret Julien risks losing her. The film is separated into four parts, named to reflect the narrative perspective.Julien Julien dreams of Marie, whom he met just over a year before at a party, and with whom he would have begun a relationship but for them both having partners. He immediately runs into her on the street as she is running for her bus and he is off to meet Madame X. They agree to meet again, but Marie fails to appear and he returns home to find Madame X waiting for him against their agreement, so he raises his price tenfold. Madame X returns the next day to try to bargain, and asks for a letter back that he does not have. Marie invites him to her place for dinner, where Julien tells her his girlfriend ran away with another man and Marie says her boyfriend Simon died six months ago. They have sex, but in the morning Marie has checked out of her apartment. Julien returns home to find that his house has been ransacked. He tries to find her by ringing her old boss, then tracks her down when an unknown woman calls to tell him the hotel Marie is staying at. Julien visits her there, and Marie agrees to move in with him. ........

Source: Wikipedia