Celebrated as a keen documentarian, Frederick Wiseman says that "Un Couple" (“A Couple”), a narrative film drawn from the letters and diaries of Leo Tolstoy and Sophia Tolstoya, is not a major departure.

The Tolstoys’ marriage was turbulent from the start. Long stretches of amity were punctuated by his affairs, their broody interludes and flaming arguments – many of which were carried out via written correspondence. Oddly, even while living under the same roof, the couple wrote long hand-written letters to one another. Separately, both chronicled their lives in personal diaries.

Sophia’s diaries serve as a portion of the text for “Un Couple,” which opens on Friday, Nov. 11, at Film Forum in Lower Manhattan