All I know about Director Jacques Doniol-Volcroze is that François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Goddar regarded him as a fellow member of the Nouvelle Vague that rolled over French cinema over the late 1950s, through the 1960s. Ironically, LA MAISON DES BORIES bears none of the usual traits of a Nouvelle Vague flick with its classically composed bucolic cinematography, exceedingly beautiful musical score (the second movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto 21 is put to more inspired use here than in ELVIRAN MADIGAN), restrained acting, and a deceptively simple screenplay that hides immense spiritual complexity.

The serenely beautiful Marie Dubois plays the loyal wife and mother who has fallen in love with a handsome young visitor but know better than to cheat while her husband is away on a job interview. Maurice Garrel plays her rather boring, disciplinarian, conservative university professor of a husband, who rules over the house with a tight grip, but ultimately proves able to change.

Then wunderkind Mathieu Carrière, handsome and fit, fans change into the household as he gets on with his job of translating Garrel's geology work to German, plays with the kids, falls in love with Dubois and ensnares her emotionally. However, the evil mendacity of manservant Ludovic in the house of dry stone huts (i.e. Bories, a construction style typical of southeastern France) enlightens her as to the straight and narrow path for a clean and balanced approach that saves the family unit and gives it a future, as Garrel returns with good news: a job in Paris that will prevent having to place the kids in boarding schools away from home.

I found the film stunningly beautiful and its moral etiquette delightful. Heartily recommended viewing. 9/10.

Finding her gorgeous in the Film Noir Shoot the Pianist,I started looking for other titles with Marie Dubois.Talking to a fellow IMDber,I found out about a sensual Drama starring Dubois,which led to me entering the house of Bories.

The plot:

Living in the countryside with her husband and children, Isabelle Durras finds herself struggling with a feeling of her life lacking any sense of fulfilment. Spending all the time with his head in books, Julien Durras reveals that he has gotten a job in Paris for a year,with the one catch being…that Isabelle and the kids have to stay in the countryside. Teaching her children at home, Isabelle Durras hires Carl-Stéphane Kursdedt.Meeting Kursdedt, Isabelle begins to wonder if this is the life she desires.

View on the film:

Radiating beauty, Marie Dubois gives a dazzling performance as Isabelle Durras. Left to raise the children on her own as Julien works away for a year, Dubois ties Isabelle's corset with a steamy sensuality,where each of Dubois's lingering gaze and shallow breaths captures the lust that Isabelle is holding in. Arriving to the house as an outsider, Mathieu Carrière gives a great performance as Kursdedt-a strong,silent type,whose handsome looks Carrière uses to whisk a romantic mood over the movie.Spending a year in the countryside with the Durras,director Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and cinematographer Ghislain Cloquet make the movie look like a living painting,where watercolour brushstrokes across the landscape are painted with ruby shadows over the forbidden love.

Undressing Isabelle and Kursdedts romance, Valcroze and editor Sophie Bhaud stylishly get under their skin with glittering, brooding wide shots brimming with passion,and expertly timed editing bringing a sex scene of imagination into reality. Bringing Simone Ratel's novel in from the fields,the screenplay by Anne Tromelin entwines the film with an enticing,earthy atmosphere,which becomes extremely strong as Isabelle & Kursdedt try to keep their love hidden. Tasting the forbidden fruit, Tromelin wraps the title in a rich melancholy silk torn with a firm grip over Isabelle going on a new path,or staying at the house of the Bories.