If you are after car chasings and unreal fight/action scenes, don't even consider reading further and even less watching this movie. This movie is about human psychology and love. These characters are tormented by a feeling of inadequacy, by strong unresolved love, and deep affection. It's a modern greek tragedy. It reminds us of the real human nature, unlinear, never simple. Forget the white/black type of hollywood movies. The real world is not like that. We are not just good, we are not just bad, we can be strong and weak at the same time. This movie manages to remind us this in the context of a difficult love story accompanied by one of the most beautiful scores ever. The whole movie seems to have been written and built around this sad, unusual and beautiful music by Ravel (piano sonata for trio). If you are an intelligent person you'll love the poetry and soft touch of this movie.

Not many movies can draw a parallel between music and love with such delicate refinement as Sautet's Un Coeur en Hiver. The film revolves around an unspoken unrequited love between Stephane (Auteuil), a violin craftsman, and the beautiful Camille (Béart), a violin virtuoso and also his patron's lover. For some reason, either out of loyalty to his friend, fear of commitment or a conviction that he does not deserve anything as perfect, or maybe a mixture of all three, Stephane pulls away. He not only pulls away, he does it with such ruthlessness that comes in complete contradiction with his character. A character that holds a violin as if it were the most fragile item in the world, and yet does not hesitate to shatter a woman's heart by simply saying, "I have decided to seduce you without loving you." But in the end, as he himself realizes, he is only destroying himself. This movie makes me fall in love with French cinema all over again.

Un Coeur En Hiver is a deeply moving film. Beart's achingly beautiful performance as a violinist who becomes infatuated with an emotionally stunted craftsman, is breathtaking to behold. The craftsman, played by Auteuil, displays an almost unbelievable emptiness of emotion, as he rejects the "unrejectable" Camile(Beart)! The soundtrack of this movie conveys as much emotion as the lead characters do, and is hauntingly beautiful to the ear. This movie is a must for Beart fans! Just seeing those beautiful intense eyes is reason enough to view this film.