La Captive -2000-

If you come to La Captive expecting plot twists, you will be bored. If you come for atmosphere, you will be mesmerized.

He follows her. He listens at doors. He interrogates her about where she went, who she saw, what she whispered to a friend. He doesn’t want to catch her cheating—he wants to catch her existing outside of his control. Ariane, for her part, drifts through the film like a beautiful ghost. She sings opera in a vacant voice, takes mysterious phone calls, and goes for long drives with her enigmatic girlfriend. She is both the object of Simon’s obsession and an unknowable void. la captive -2000-

Depending on your specific area of interest (psychoanalysis, feminist theory, or literary adaptation), you may find the following resources useful: If you come to La Captive expecting plot

The film centers on , a wealthy, idle young man living in an opulent Parisian apartment. He is ostensibly in a relationship with Ariane (Sylvie Testud) , a beautiful, elusive blonde woman who lives with him. From the opening shot—a long, silent take of Simon watching Ariane sleep—we are plunged into his subjective, paranoid world. He listens at doors

: Published in French Studies , this essay by Martine Beugnet and Marion Schmid explores how the film acts as a contemporary critical inheritance of the Modernist tradition and Proustian legacy .

The Glass Prism: An Exploration of Chantal Akerman’s La Captive, du temps perdu (2000)