Netflix It: The Widow of St. Pierre: Movie, DVD Review (2009)

Editor's Note: Netflix It is a feature meant to draw attention to older films some readers might have missed, and might consider either adding to their Netflix queue, or renting at their local DVD store. The following review of "The Widow of St. Pierre," never published here before, is the original 2000 review.


If the reason for the murder sounds a bit harsh even by today’s cut-throat standards of what constitutes an unacceptably large waistline, it’s useful to know that the murderer was stone drunk when he hacked his victim to leaner shreds.

Now condemned to death via guillotine (also known as a “widow” in French slang), the murderer, Neel Auguste (Emir Kusturica), is faced with a peculiar situation--since there are no guillotines or executioners in the foggy reaches of St. Pierre, the now sober and deeply remorseful Auguste must sit in a holding cell for several months while St. Pierre’s brilliantly inept magistrates work to ship in the guillotine from Martinique...and find an executioner.

In the interim, Auguste meets a dashing couple who profoundly impact his life--Pauline (Juliette Binoche) and her husband, Jean (Daniel Auteuil), an army captain responsible for Auguste’s care until the time comes to chop off his head.

But as this curious trio comes to know one another--and as the blindly passionate and idealistic Pauline quietly builds community support for saving Auguste’s life--his value as a human being comes into question. Indeed, as Pauline sees it, every man is capable of good and evil. When they slip--even if that slip involves a cold-blooded murder--they’re nevertheless human and deserving of a second chance.

Working from a script by Claude Faraldo, Leconte uses the growing tension between the townspeople who come to love Auguste and the magistrates ordered by law to kill him, as one of the driving forces behind his film.

But just as powerful--and perhaps more interesting--are the scenes shared between Binoche and Auteuil, two superb actors who deliver terrific, restrained performances that become the soul of the movie.

Indeed, as Pauline fights for Auguste’s life, she knowingly puts her husband’s job--and his own life--directly in jeopardy. There’s plenty of irony in that, but Leconte wisely doesn’t offer his own comment on Pauline’s choices. Instead, he goes deeper--and leaves it up to the audience to decide whether those choices were wreckless or absolutely right.

Grade: A-