‘Tous les Matins du Monde’

Centered on an imaginary friendship between two 17th-Century composers, Marin Marais and M. de Sainte Colombe, this French film is a beautiful, sensual period piece. It’s full of fine music, and it’s a big, juicy star vehicle for Gerard Depardieu (who shares the role of Marais with his son Guillaume, left), Jean-Pierre Marielle (as Colombe) and Anne Brochet (right, as Colombe’s daughter Madeleine). Director Alain Corneau and writer Pascal Quignard turn the lives of these people (of which little is actually known) into a fable about artistic integrity and compromise as the ascetic St. Colombe and his opportunistic, amoral protege Marais inevitably come to a parting of the ways (Cinemax)