At just 64 minutes, this is a very modestly proportioned film from veteran documentary film-maker Frederick Wiseman, whose works generally run at epic length. And in fact A Couple is very different to his habitual output: it’s a belletristic homage to the most famously unhappy marriage in literary history; an intimate, pared-down chamber piece about Sofia Tolstoy, wife of Leo. The indefinite article in the title is misleading. This is the couple: a legendary relationship.
Sofia is played by Nathalie Boutefeu, who addresses the camera (and by that token Leo, or herself) in a series of yearning monologues which have been adapted from her diaries and letters. It is a thoroughly intelligent production, a film festival event that could not exist in the rough-and-tumble of regular movie distribution but will I hope find a home on streaming services.
