By the Sea: the flop that foretold the end of Brangelina

Last autumn, the Pitts, as they then were, released a curious Euro-art-movie called By the Sea, directed by her and starring them both, about a couple with raging marital problems at a French seaside resort. Few saw it, and the critical reception was generally unkind - it was accused of being a vanity project, a wispy and vain white-people-problem movie by the superstar couple de nos jours.

Even as someone who liked the film more than most, it was a struggle to deal with the specific tragedy between this pair, Roland and Nessa, which comes down to problems conceiving. With all we knew about Brad and Angelina's family life, "couldn't they adopt one from Africa?" was a hard question to suppress as you watched.

What a difference a year has made. It now feels like By the Sea foretold the end, a kind of pre-emptive wake for a relationship at death's door. Future students of Hollywood power couples will go back to it searching for clues, just as the rows and ennui of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? were like tea leaves for an earlier generation's stellar marriage, between Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

It's telling that neither star made much of an effort to promote this film, which tanked commercially - it cost $10 million and made about a third of that worldwide. Rewind to the vehicle that brought them together, 2005's whoppingly successful assassin caper Mr and Mrs Smith, and the contrast couldn't be more extreme. Everyone wanted to watch them hook up, back then. Only now will By the Sea attract a sort of vulture-ish, rubber-necking attention, like the site of a recent car crash.

There's a line of dialogue in it, after 40 minutes of lounging and elegant despair have already elapsed, which juts out like a sharp rock at high tide. Pitt's Roland, a failed novelist, has been drinking to excess at the local cafe, while his chronically depressed wife just languishes in their hotel room.

The camera lingers on Pitt, and we hear him mumble the words "We aren't going to make it" into his pillow.

He staggers in and fumbles for her in the bed: Jolie makes noises of disgust, and tries to wash his taste off using the glass of white wine by her bedside. He won't let up, so she kicks him to his side of the bed, pummels him on the back, and storms out onto the balcony.

The camera lingers on Pitt, face down and spread-eagled in the moonlight. Before it cuts, we hear him mumble the words "We aren't going to make it" into his pillow.

Tempting as it might be to consider this a borderline out-take, no one outside a marriage is able or allowed to date its demise so specifically. There were, at least, reports of real trouble on the set between them, a tangible blurring of art-life boundaries. Pitt's character is a serious alcoholic; reports emerge all the time of his boozing behind the scenes.

If By the Sea was Jolie's attempt at some kind of therapy session, it clearly backfired. And if hitting the bottle was Pitt's idea of getting into character, it was Method acting with more than a hint of madness.

The rage and dissatisfaction of Roland and Nessa gives them roving eyes: especially her, in fact, when she finds a peephole in their room and starts watching the gorgeous couple next door - young newlyweds, trying for a child, who can't keep their hands off each other.

Adultery with Melvil Poupaud's character drives Roland and Nessa to the brink of separation, but maybe advances them towards a new understanding by the end. The film doesn't conclude with them resolving all their troubles, but there's a series of teary heart-to-hearts, and a cautious sense of optimism as they drive away - they may have turned a corner.

This is the fantasy. It feels like a roseate pipe-dream watching it again, because of all the tabloid speculation about the real-life sequel. All eyes are on Brad's World War II drama Allied, because of supposedly electric chemistry with his co-star Marion Cotillard - herself happily married, by all accounts, to the French director and star Guillaume Canet.

Of all the uncanny coincidences in By the Sea, it's this one of nationality - the Frenchies next door - that leaps out most. Cotillard is said to be horrified at the implication she might have been a third party in the split. On screen, Jolie sent her characters down that path before giving them the last-ditch benefit of the doubt. IRL, as they say, it was time to get the lawyers in.

(China Daily 10/08/2016 page22)