A Couple

Frederick Wiseman
Part of

60th New York Film Festival

September 30 - October 16, 2022

Legendary American documentarian Frederick Wiseman has made a film based on the diaries of Sophia Tolstoy, structured as a series of monologues delivered with magnificent poise and gathering intensity by star and co-writer Nathalie Boutefeu—a captivating one-woman portrait of a remarkably contemporary rendering of a marriage.

DIRECTOR
Frederick Wiseman
YEAR
2022
COUNTRY
U.S.
RUNTIME
63 minutes
LANGUAGE
French with English subtitles

Q&As with Frederick Wiseman on Oct. 1 & 2

Countess Sophia Behrs married Leo Tolstoy when she was 18 and he was 34. They were husband and wife for 48 years, had 13 children, and she outlived him by nine years. Yet their relationship, among the most discussed and written about in literary history, was anything but harmonious, as Sophia, an artist in her own right—a photographer, memoirist, and editor—was constantly forced to negotiate her happiness with her husband’s infidelities. Inspired by Sophia’s story, legendary American documentarian Frederick Wiseman has made a film based on Sophia’s diaries and letters from Leo to Sophia, structured as a series of monologues delivered with magnificent poise and gathering intensity by star and co-writer Nathalie Boutefeu, pillowed by graceful images of natural beauty from the film’s bucolic French setting. Wiseman’s captivating one-woman portrait presents a remarkably contemporary rendering of a marriage. A Zipporah Films release.

Director Frederick Wiseman will participate in a NYFF60 Free Talk on Monday, October 3. Click here to learn more.

A Couple
A Couple
A Couple
A Couple
A Couple
A Couple

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