La Belle Noiseuse (1991)
Jacques Rivette
First, the preliminaries. Yes, I did see the 4 hour version and no, I did not do it to see Emmanuelle Beart in the buff (she's one of the many women that look much better with their clothes on). The film is awkwardly sluggish and tends to lose pace quite a bit. The drawing scenes where we see the artist at work were truly painful for two reasons. First, the director chose a Picasso (damnit!) and second, the artist chose to spend the first 30 minutes scratching on rough paper (yuick! I still cringe at the sound). But if the point of this exercise was to make the audience give up painting as a vocation, this reviewer is not quitting his day job.
The story goes like this. A young painter and his girlfriend visit the French country side so that the painter can meet with his idol, the ageing Frenhofer, who lives in isolation with his wife and a host of servants who are apparently all on social security. It soon becomes clear that the old guy has problems getting it up... and I mean his brush, you dirty bastards. He decides to re-start/finish/begin/whatever a painting ``La Belle Noiseuse'' that he tried to create 10 years ago but could not.
The film is about art more than it is about the painter, his subject, or the creative process itself. Perhaps, it is about the process---most of the scenes are protracted and agonizing shots of Frenhofer trying to find his way around Marianne, trying to see her for what she is behind the mask that she's carefully erected. In some sense, both Marianne and Nicolas are pretending, as we see in the opening scenes, when they indulge in some role-playing at the inn. Frenhofer furiously sketches the naked model placing her in physically impossible positions, twisting her, exhausting her, in a futile effort to slip under the veneer of her persona. Wonderfully ironic, Marianne manages to stay naked and clothed from him at the same time. Gradually, however, her defenses wear down, and not because of the artist's persistance, but because she is forced to confront her own demons, especially her dependence on her boyfriend. She brutalizes Frenhofer into continuing with his work when he all but gives up.
And give up he almost does, just like he has 10 years ago. The family has a somewhat sordid past. The friend that brings the young couple to the house was Fren wife's lover before she met with the painter (or so it seems). It is slowly revealed that when Fren fell in love with her, he wanted to paint her. However, as he came to know her better, and as he came to the edge of his artistic ability, a further step was necessary in order to transcend ordinary expression. He had started painting her but suddenly gave up... having peered into the abyss, he shrank back, afraid that going on would destroy his marriage. This time, however, he finishes the painting, and, sure enough, it has an immediate and devastating effect on the unprepared Marianne. It is as if he managed to bare her soul and lock it in the canvas. Marianne has a violent reaction but comes to realize that the torment has freed her from her fears. Unfortunately, it is the hapless Nicolas that is left to sulk alone.
Overall, the movie is a bit on the pretentious side, especially because of the truly painful sketching scenes. As far as I can tell, the artist isn't any good either, but maybe that's another point worth making. Do you need to be able to draw photographs to be able to see people? Maybe not. In all other respects, the movie is great. I particularly enjoyed the cruel streak in Frenhofer's submissive wife. If you are a normal person, you will be pissed at Marianne and feel sorry for Nicolas in the end, which is how I felt. He clearly did not deserve this---was it his fault that his girlfriend was fucked up in the head?
February 7, 2001. BLS