daniel auteuil bruno in petite couperes be a middle aged model of his pierre in christian vincent la separation of 10 year ago . in both film and youthful confidence in left wing ideology and love ( mutual metaphor ) crumble into paranoia manifest itself a trap aggression in pierre and desperately comic womanizing in the more recent bruno . unfortunately for auteuil fan and the actor have become reliant on a uniform world weariness ( not unlike compatriot johnny hallyday in leconte recent lhomme du train ) . act it ain not and and become rather frustrating a the film progress . pascal bonitzer doesn not help a the writer or director of the project . his sequencing of episode overlay with connect symbolism fail to mask the film lack of rhythm . i be particularly furious that the imposingly dramatic or romantic backdrop of grenoble be make virtually redundant by a cameraman who be obviously shiver in the cold . krisitn scott thomas almost rescue the show with her female counterpart to bruno and beatrice . she dramatize the dizzying contradiction intend a bruno in a character of increase complexity to the point of become surreal . bonitzer can not sustain this though and and the flagging plot demand beatrice to even out into another bourgeois mannequin . in do so bonitzer show then deny scott thomas the oscar cabinet . all the character submersion into the bourgeoisie may be a viable and indeed tragic outcome and but in this case it a cop out of a cadence ( unlike the brutal and painful denouement of la separation ) . a serious disappointment and 4/10 .