Dir. Chantal Akerman, 2000. 118 min. Color. DCP.
With Stanislas Merhar, Sylvie Testud, Olivia Bonamy
In French with English subtitles

Nomination for European Film Awards for Sylvie Testud as European Actress (2000)

In adapting The Prisoner, the most obsessive volume of Marcel Proust’s magnum opus of obsession, Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman created a film as stylish and coolly erotic as a Hitchcock classic, with a hint of subversion all her own.

Akerman’s take on the tale of the frail young narrator who sequesters and obsessively shadows his lover Albertine finds the heroine defying the objectifying male gaze to embody the endless allure of freedom and its mysteries.

Though not as well known as Akerman’s groundbreaking classic Jeanne Dielman, The Captive is an equally extraordinary achievement, and a brilliantly personal reading of Proust.

“Akerman’s slow, sleek and furiously dispassionate drama of obsessive sexual jealousy will no doubt make its way in indie circuits and festivals.” — ScreenDaily