Chekhovian drama of simmering but subtle sexual politics as a rural household of ladies post WWI is thrown into emotional turmoil at the reappearance after a number of years of an eligible friend and neighbour. The women, with one exception, are not young but at that touchy, tragic age when they are clinging to the last traces of their good looks. There are five of them, apparently sisters, several with failed marriages, now with nothing to do but laze around their fine country home.
The film works quite well as a study of such women, but it's really about Victor, a man in failing health and with intimations of mortality, who is on a solemn Tolstoyan quest for meaning. His emptiness is clearly linked to failed opportunities with women - they begin to suspect there is a particular reason. Walled in by his own weakness, regret, and resignation, the sudden attentions of all the women only throws him into more confusion. Comprised largely of social visits, there's a nice period atmosphere and the whole thing is understated, sombre and faintly tragic. Quite a fine film.
The film works quite well as a study of such women, but it's really about Victor, a man in failing health and with intimations of mortality, who is on a solemn Tolstoyan quest for meaning. His emptiness is clearly linked to failed opportunities with women - they begin to suspect there is a particular reason. Walled in by his own weakness, regret, and resignation, the sudden attentions of all the women only throws him into more confusion. Comprised largely of social visits, there's a nice period atmosphere and the whole thing is understated, sombre and faintly tragic. Quite a fine film.