Starring
Michel Piccoli, Jane Birkin, Emmanuelle Beart, Marianne Denicourt,
David Bursztein, Gilles Arbona & Bernard Dufour's Hands (!).
Directed by Jacques Rivette. (1991/238 min).
AVAILABLE
ON BLU-RAY FROM
Review
by Fluffy the Fearless😺
Have
you ever shopped around on Amazon for something specific and taken a
look at the list of "similar products" they recommend?
When doing some preliminary info-gathering for La Belle Noiseuse,
Amazon's crack market-research team also suggested the following
titles: The Commuter, Laserblast, Jason Bourne, The Carol Burnett
Show and Evil Bong 666.
Unless
I somehow missed that sketch where Ms. Burnett strips nude and
contorts like a pretzel while Harvey Korman captures her essence on
canvas, The Carol Burnett Show has as much in common with La
Belle Noiseuse as my cat does with the national deficit. Then
again, off the top of my head, I can't think of a "similar
product" either, so maybe I should cut Amazon some slack.
One
thing is certain...I've never seen anything quite like this film. Granted, I'm unfamiliar with director Jacques Rivette's other work - though I'm pretty sure he had nothing to do with Evil Bong 666 - so maybe
the film's epic length, extremely-deliberate pace and a
near-absence of a traditional music score are indicative
of the guy's style. But three days after dedicating two entire evenings to
the film, I'm still not entirely sure what to think of it. I guess
the fact I'm still thinking about it is a big positive. I
couldn't say that about Jason Bourne, for which I didn't expend a second thought once it ended.
 |
| "For my next masterpiece, I shall paint dogs playing poker." |
Edouard
Frenhofer (Michel Piccoli) is an eccentric artist who hasn't
painted in a decade, ever since attempting what was to be his
singular masterpiece, La Belle Noiseusse, using his wife, Liz (Jane
Birkin), as his model. It's suggested that his failure not only
dissuaded him from picking up a brush again, but irrevocably changed his
relationship with Liz. Then an aspiring artist, Nicolas (David Bersztein), and his girlfriend, Marianne
(Emmanuelle Beart), arrive. Nicholas is initially enamored with the
reclusive artist and suggests using Marianne as his model to take
another shot at painting La Belle Noiseuse.
That's
the nutshell summary of a narrative that is sometimes ambiguous,
perplexing and - let's just go out and say it - arty and pretentious.
But that's not to say the film isn't interesting. In fact, it's often
quite fascinating, which is remarkable for a movie with a
running time longer than The Ten Commandments, much of it
consisting of long stretches of Frenhofer sketching Marianne in
various nude poses (many of which look painful). Their
interaction - which is silent a majority of the time - provides the crux of
the film. Being that Marianne initially doesn't want to do this,
their relationship is quietly adversarial at first, then congenial,
then personally revealing. But even their evolving relationship (and
its emotional impact on both Nicolas & Liz) takes a backseat to
the creative process. These scenes are shot in very long takes, in real
time, with sparse dialogue and no accompanying music...just the scratching of
pen to paper, charcoal & brush to canvas.
 |
| "Hey, lady...I eat at that table." |
It
sounds boring as hell on paper, but even though there are admittedly
some occasions where one is tempted to hit the chapter skip button,
the artistic process is mostly pretty compelling. And if nothing else, one has to
admire Emmanuelle Beart's bravery. Hell, I get self-conscious
catching my own reflection in the mirror after hopping from the
shower, but in this four-hour film, Beart is fully nude for at-least
half of it. While she's strikingly beautiful and Rivette's camera
lingers on her body in equally long stretches, there is nothing
sexual or erotic about these scenes. In
fact, once the shock of her full-frontal form wears off, the nudity
becomes as normalized for the viewer as it does for Marianne. I found myself wondering
if it did for Emmanuelle, as well. If it didn't, then her
performance is all-the-more impressive. To act as though being
continuously nude is the most normal thing in the world...man, that's
Harvey Keitel-brave, if you ask me.
Its
visual frankness and challenging narrative obviously means La
Belle Noiseuse is not for everybody. Almost defiantly methodical
in its depiction of the creative process, the film is nevertheless
intriguing. That it manages to (mostly) maintain the viewer's interest for
four hours is quite a feat, especially when you consider the decidedly
uncinematic subject matter. I'll admit I didn't always understand the
motivations of these characters, but in the end, I don't think we
need to.
EXTRA
KIBBLES
INTERVIEW
- Director/Co-Writer Jacques
Rivette
INTERVIEW
- Co-Writers Pascal Bonitzer &
Christine Laurent
AUDIO
COMMENTARY - By Film Historian
Richard Suchenski
2017
RE-RELEASE TRAILER
KITTY CONSENSUS:
PURR-R-R...LIKE A GOOD SCRATCH BEHIND THE EARS
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