The build-up scenes of talk and philosophising, in salons and sitting rooms, are hypnotic.

From this droll premise, potentially as dark and dry as blackened toast, Hausner spins a witty, unexpectedly touching meditation on the nature of partnership and the elasticity of fate.

This visual confinement underscores the lack of intimacy and agency in Henriette's life. Her longing for escape is understandable. She's surrounded by men for whom a woman's life is predicated on silence.

Amour Fou can be very opaque about what’s roiling underneath this perverse biopic, but that doesn’t make its final moments any less affecting.