Elective Affinities

+ intro by season curator Adrian Wootton

Le affinità elettive

A haunting version of Goethe’s novel about two couples’ destructive romances.

  • Director

    Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani

  • With

    Isabelle Huppert, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Marie Gillain

  • Italy-France 1996. 98min

  • 35mm

  • English subtitles

Relocated from Germany to the leafy Tuscan countryside, this delicate adaptation of Goethe’s semi-autobiographical 1809 novel is an unjustly neglected entry in the Tavianis’ canon. Centred on an aristocratic quartet during the Napoleonic Wars, Elective Affinities’ slow-burn tale of illicit affection and romantic deceit is an evocative and rapturously beautiful drama, driven by Isabelle Huppert’s outstanding central performance.

Joint ticket available with An Introduction to the Taviani Brothers on Thursday 1 February £16, concessions £13 (Members pay £2 less). Book in person at the box office or by phone on 020 7928 3232.

See other screenings of Elective Affinities.

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