Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud (1995) is a French film that was co-written and directed by Claude Sautet. Director Sautet's career was based on movies about the French bourgeoisie, starring beautiful French actors. These included Romy Schneider, Stéphane Audran, Sandrine Bonnaire, and Emmanuelle Béart.
In this movie, Nelly is played by Emmanuelle Béart and Monsieur Arnaud is portrayed by Michel Serrault. Nelly is young, beautiful, and poor. Monsieur Arnaud is old, distinguished, and rich.
Monsieur Arnaud hires Nelly to help him with his autobiography. (In 1995 it was reasonable that he feared computers, and she was at home with them.) It's hard to know how much education Nelly has had, but at critically editing a manuscript, she is quite an expert.
The rest of the plot follows from there. Béart was strikingly beautiful, and, it's clear that--knowingly or unknowingly--Arnaud sees her as more than his editor and data entry person. The question I ask is if Nelly weren't that beautiful, would Arnaud have hired her on the spot? You can decide that after you see the film.
We saw this movie on the small screen, where it worked very well. It's not a must-see film, but you won't regret having watched it. The movie has a solid IMDb rating of 7.4. I rated it 8.0, because I enjoyed it, and because this is one of those French films that is so very French.
P.S. Watch for the brilliant actor Michael Lonsdale as the mysterious M. Dolabella.
In this movie, Nelly is played by Emmanuelle Béart and Monsieur Arnaud is portrayed by Michel Serrault. Nelly is young, beautiful, and poor. Monsieur Arnaud is old, distinguished, and rich.
Monsieur Arnaud hires Nelly to help him with his autobiography. (In 1995 it was reasonable that he feared computers, and she was at home with them.) It's hard to know how much education Nelly has had, but at critically editing a manuscript, she is quite an expert.
The rest of the plot follows from there. Béart was strikingly beautiful, and, it's clear that--knowingly or unknowingly--Arnaud sees her as more than his editor and data entry person. The question I ask is if Nelly weren't that beautiful, would Arnaud have hired her on the spot? You can decide that after you see the film.
We saw this movie on the small screen, where it worked very well. It's not a must-see film, but you won't regret having watched it. The movie has a solid IMDb rating of 7.4. I rated it 8.0, because I enjoyed it, and because this is one of those French films that is so very French.
P.S. Watch for the brilliant actor Michael Lonsdale as the mysterious M. Dolabella.