The title "Nelly and Monsieur Artaud" suggests both a friendship and an unequal relationship. We know Nelly (an editor) through her responses to the men in her life. We know Monsieur Artaud through his long history, careers, ideas, and finally through his relationship with women, past and present. They are not on the same social plane in life nor in the movie, and to imagine anything more than an occasionally touching friendship between them is to make a mistake.
Pierre Artuad is a rather wealthy, dapper gentleman, once a judge in the pacific islands, and then a luminary in the business world. He's sophisticated, in touch with history, politics, and the arts; has authored two books, and owns a impressive private library. He's obviously opposed to French colonialism: the native's "constant smile told me I wasn't wanted." And in listing the countries of his long postponed worldwide trip, notes "to places where they don't kill tourists." As a "fearsome businessman" with an "unbending" hateful son working for Microsoft in Seattle, he nevertheless despises the corrupting power of big business which "does not leave you a better man." As his ex-partner says, "I'd rather be his friend than his enemy." But judging by his advancements in colonial law and in a pretty ruthless business practice, his scruples were more adaptive than provoking--of change.
Still Monsieur Artaud does possess a significant degree of self-awareness. He accepted the judgeship because of his "sedentary nature," and his sharp mental discipline and discerning eye matched up well with a business career. His wife, he tells us, left him during one of his "acute states of ordinary misogyny," and he is very cognizant of his poor "track record" with women. "I was a lousy father, and a lousy husband," he confesses. Computers are a bane to him, and his extensive private library in now of no use to him--"I'm at an age when I read the same few books over and over." He says of Nelly's husband, he's "insolent but in a nice way." His friend Jackie praises his capacity for listening, and describes him to Nelly as "delicate and civilized," adding that "his eyes don't miss a thing." But he can ridicule his wife to Nelly, broadcasting her readiness to criticize his business ethics, while indulging in luxurious tastes. Finally, Artuad is a humorous man, at least since the leisure of retirement and the wisdom of advanced age--he says to Jackie whose latest man is another cad: "Why not me, I can offer liberty, security----and austerity." So, what do we know about Nelly? I'm afraid not too much by way of identity. She's an out of work editor making do with odd jobs. She's divorcing a husband who would rather speak to an encyclopedia salesman than seek employment, and dating Monsieur Artaud's squinty publisher. We know she's competent and can be incredibly firm in her actions and words. We don't know her last name. We never see her mother. Through her, Pierre Artuaud unfolds, but the reverse cannot be said. (For Artaud seems to chiefly question her about her sex life--imagined or real). We also know that she has a frankness with men that can be very telling. Baert/Nelly is at her very peak (as actor/person) in her radically exposing break-off scene with Granec. And she is perfectly at ease criticizing Artaud's writing style and content, as well as his "heinous" business practices. In this sense, and with all her obvious and credited charm, she has a trans-formative effect on him, drawing him out and away from accustomed solitude.
The question is: is she similarly changed by this unlikely relationship? Does she have more identity in the end or more security---I mean being left totally in charge of her editing work is a far cry from kneading bread dough. Yes, Nelly has rubbed shoulders with another class, and been touched by the grace of an old man, but is this real change? His interest in her as too often been prying, too often been based on that "passion which never dies" (even as he resists it), and too often been traced back to his own self-interest. Actually there is one moment in which he did seem to add something to her life. It was in that business café, in commenting on the gawkers, Nelly says they see "me as a prostitute," and he counters by saying "or gorgeous courageous professional." But in general, he only has his prestige and difference to offer, which are less a change than an experience. And in the end her own scruples over her expressed rage in back-to-back scenes with Granec and Artaud, are not so easily shut down as the far graver ones of her breezy companion, and in a moment, the bright light of day fades to night.
Pierre Artuad is a rather wealthy, dapper gentleman, once a judge in the pacific islands, and then a luminary in the business world. He's sophisticated, in touch with history, politics, and the arts; has authored two books, and owns a impressive private library. He's obviously opposed to French colonialism: the native's "constant smile told me I wasn't wanted." And in listing the countries of his long postponed worldwide trip, notes "to places where they don't kill tourists." As a "fearsome businessman" with an "unbending" hateful son working for Microsoft in Seattle, he nevertheless despises the corrupting power of big business which "does not leave you a better man." As his ex-partner says, "I'd rather be his friend than his enemy." But judging by his advancements in colonial law and in a pretty ruthless business practice, his scruples were more adaptive than provoking--of change.
Still Monsieur Artaud does possess a significant degree of self-awareness. He accepted the judgeship because of his "sedentary nature," and his sharp mental discipline and discerning eye matched up well with a business career. His wife, he tells us, left him during one of his "acute states of ordinary misogyny," and he is very cognizant of his poor "track record" with women. "I was a lousy father, and a lousy husband," he confesses. Computers are a bane to him, and his extensive private library in now of no use to him--"I'm at an age when I read the same few books over and over." He says of Nelly's husband, he's "insolent but in a nice way." His friend Jackie praises his capacity for listening, and describes him to Nelly as "delicate and civilized," adding that "his eyes don't miss a thing." But he can ridicule his wife to Nelly, broadcasting her readiness to criticize his business ethics, while indulging in luxurious tastes. Finally, Artuad is a humorous man, at least since the leisure of retirement and the wisdom of advanced age--he says to Jackie whose latest man is another cad: "Why not me, I can offer liberty, security----and austerity." So, what do we know about Nelly? I'm afraid not too much by way of identity. She's an out of work editor making do with odd jobs. She's divorcing a husband who would rather speak to an encyclopedia salesman than seek employment, and dating Monsieur Artaud's squinty publisher. We know she's competent and can be incredibly firm in her actions and words. We don't know her last name. We never see her mother. Through her, Pierre Artuaud unfolds, but the reverse cannot be said. (For Artaud seems to chiefly question her about her sex life--imagined or real). We also know that she has a frankness with men that can be very telling. Baert/Nelly is at her very peak (as actor/person) in her radically exposing break-off scene with Granec. And she is perfectly at ease criticizing Artaud's writing style and content, as well as his "heinous" business practices. In this sense, and with all her obvious and credited charm, she has a trans-formative effect on him, drawing him out and away from accustomed solitude.
The question is: is she similarly changed by this unlikely relationship? Does she have more identity in the end or more security---I mean being left totally in charge of her editing work is a far cry from kneading bread dough. Yes, Nelly has rubbed shoulders with another class, and been touched by the grace of an old man, but is this real change? His interest in her as too often been prying, too often been based on that "passion which never dies" (even as he resists it), and too often been traced back to his own self-interest. Actually there is one moment in which he did seem to add something to her life. It was in that business café, in commenting on the gawkers, Nelly says they see "me as a prostitute," and he counters by saying "or gorgeous courageous professional." But in general, he only has his prestige and difference to offer, which are less a change than an experience. And in the end her own scruples over her expressed rage in back-to-back scenes with Granec and Artaud, are not so easily shut down as the far graver ones of her breezy companion, and in a moment, the bright light of day fades to night.