Philippe Garrel’s film concerns a shakily employed actor (Louis Garrel, the director’s son) who leaves his office-worker wife (Rebecca Convenant) and cute daughter (Olga Milshtein) for an actress (Anna Mouglalis). Beautiful to look at, thanks to Paris, film stock and the cinematographer Willy Kurant (“Masculine Feminine”), “Jealousy” has a quiet melancholy that’s very pleasing.

The new girlfriend complains a lot, but Mouglalis’ low-pitched voice takes the edge off. The ex-wife cries (in the terrific opening scene) but never reproaches anyone. The father, despite casually dumping his entire family, is portrayed as a sensitive chap, though Garrel has a bad tendency to let his hair do the acting.

The director eschews humor in favor of flat declarations: “I love you . . . definitively.” It’s an exquisite glimpse of Parisian coupling and uncoupling, but it’s strangely lacking in real conflict.