are featured rather prominently in this ultra sophisticated film by Claude Sautet, perhaps to the point of annoyance for some. Mlle. Beart, whom I first saw in Claude Berri's Manon of the Spring (1986), has largest, most beautiful eyes one would ever want to see, and she is a fine actress with a smooth and subtle style. However I think that Sautet worked too exclusively with glances of nuance, raised and lowered lids, eyes widened and narrowed and such and such to further the story and to create character when he might have added a line of dialogue here and there.
Yet I liked this and certainly prefer such a style to the loud gestures and over the top hysterics that some directors might have employed. Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud (Beart and Michel Serrault) do raise their voices once--a lover's spat one might say, he to perhaps show he is still alive, she to show that she cares enough to get angry with him and has an independent spirit.
This then is a love story, super fine like gossamer and civilized to the point of something close to a burlesque of being civilized, and yet, and yet, because he is well past the age of retirement and she a vibrant young woman in her prime, the story must be presented in symbol and gesture: the back rub, the Platonic staying overnight, the little spat mentioned above, the muted jealousies, the stealthy triumph of the returning wife--in short it has everything a love affair might have, the bittersweet (their parting) and the bitter (a night with another, younger man) and the very sweet (the Sauternes, Château d'Yquem, no less, older than the woman herself, apres diner).
What Sautet does so well and so completely here is show how such a bloodless affair can touch the heart of both the old guy who knows that he can never express himself sexually and the young woman who knows that as well, how their love is emotional and deeply felt but like those two ships passing in the night, ephemeral and at some unavoidable distance. One could say--and I think we'll all felt this--that the two are soul mates separated by an implacable difference in age who by chance experience an intimation of their love together, and then it is gone.
I also liked the behavior in which Nelly says she has done something and then, only after she has said she has done it, does she do it! At first she rejects Arnaud's financial help. Then she tells her husband that she has gotten this money from an older man, gratis, and only then does she accept the money. Later in the film she tells Arnaud that she spent the night with the editor when she has not, and then afterwards, she does spend the night with him. Interesting psychology. I have actually known someone who would do that. It is like trying out an action to see how it is received before doing it! There is one rather serious problem with this DVD. On my Samsung flat screen TV only the first line of the subtitles could be read. Only the very top of the second line appeared, forcing me to miss some of the subtleties of the dialogue. I understand this is in the DVD since other reviewers have reported the same problem.
See this for Michel Serrault, whose credits in 12-point type are longer than my arm (IMDb lists 155 as an actor) and for Emmanuelle Beart whose unique beauty is unforgettable.
(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)
Yet I liked this and certainly prefer such a style to the loud gestures and over the top hysterics that some directors might have employed. Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud (Beart and Michel Serrault) do raise their voices once--a lover's spat one might say, he to perhaps show he is still alive, she to show that she cares enough to get angry with him and has an independent spirit.
This then is a love story, super fine like gossamer and civilized to the point of something close to a burlesque of being civilized, and yet, and yet, because he is well past the age of retirement and she a vibrant young woman in her prime, the story must be presented in symbol and gesture: the back rub, the Platonic staying overnight, the little spat mentioned above, the muted jealousies, the stealthy triumph of the returning wife--in short it has everything a love affair might have, the bittersweet (their parting) and the bitter (a night with another, younger man) and the very sweet (the Sauternes, Château d'Yquem, no less, older than the woman herself, apres diner).
What Sautet does so well and so completely here is show how such a bloodless affair can touch the heart of both the old guy who knows that he can never express himself sexually and the young woman who knows that as well, how their love is emotional and deeply felt but like those two ships passing in the night, ephemeral and at some unavoidable distance. One could say--and I think we'll all felt this--that the two are soul mates separated by an implacable difference in age who by chance experience an intimation of their love together, and then it is gone.
I also liked the behavior in which Nelly says she has done something and then, only after she has said she has done it, does she do it! At first she rejects Arnaud's financial help. Then she tells her husband that she has gotten this money from an older man, gratis, and only then does she accept the money. Later in the film she tells Arnaud that she spent the night with the editor when she has not, and then afterwards, she does spend the night with him. Interesting psychology. I have actually known someone who would do that. It is like trying out an action to see how it is received before doing it! There is one rather serious problem with this DVD. On my Samsung flat screen TV only the first line of the subtitles could be read. Only the very top of the second line appeared, forcing me to miss some of the subtleties of the dialogue. I understand this is in the DVD since other reviewers have reported the same problem.
See this for Michel Serrault, whose credits in 12-point type are longer than my arm (IMDb lists 155 as an actor) and for Emmanuelle Beart whose unique beauty is unforgettable.
(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)