With Gabrielle, Patrice Chereau breathes some much needed life into the historical drama, using an array of visual techniques to bring a unique energy and rhythm to the film.  Based on a story by Joseph Conrad, it's less Heart of Darkness than a D.H. Lawrence novel but Chereau's ever-roaming camera, along the occasional self-referential edit or replacing the sound of several dramatic lines with words on-screen, take the film out of its suffocating historical context.  It may sound like senseless experimentation but as occasional flourishes which highlight the piece, they give the film a timeless feel while still retaining the setting and social rules of 19th Century France.  In doing so, Chereau's central couple operates on a more universal level and he is able to deconstruct their relationship by carefully tracking their demise.  Not surprisingly, Isabelle Huppert is outstanding as the strong-willed Gabrielle who uses her position as the weaker half in the marriage to force her husband to confront the failings of their relationship that he is otherwise content to ignore.  Like many period films, their relationship declined due to a lack of intimacy and Gabrielle, the prototypical empowered woman, flees to find comfort in another man.  The dramatic crux of Chereau's film, however, is that Gabrielle returns never to leave again, upsetting the carefully constructed balance of power that her husband sets in motion early in the marriage.  A majority of film focuses on the time soon after Gabrielle returns to the house, giving their conversations an immediacy and emotional potency that is rarely found in similar films taking place over several years.  Chereau is careful not to set Gabrielle up as a martyr nor her husband as tyrant, instead using both character's shortcomings as a way to cleverly examine the effects of and eventual destruction of a loveless marriage.  The seemingly vast expanses of their mansion soon become suffocating and oppressive in their emptiness and the inescapability of each other's presence only enhances their complete inability to connect to one another.  Much time is spent watching her husband cope with Gabrielle's unexpected actions and trying to mask his own feelings of jealousy and incompetence, but it is her process of self-realization that is at the heart of the film.  Huppert's performance is so richly detailed that it traces her path to empowerment without having to resort to histrionics.  Her subtlety along with the masterful way Chereau lets everything to unfold naturally makes for a surprisingly intense period piece that beautifully captures the emotional details of the relationship's downfall while avoiding the limitations inherent in its setting.