The late Jacques Rivette knocks us silly with a breathtaking meditation on what it means to be an artist, and what art demands of those that believe in it. A woman roped into posing nude for a famed but insecure painter, undergoes several intense days of compliant collaboration. Rivette’s unforced style gives the impression of life as it is being lived; his commitment is matched by that of actors Michel Piccoli, Jane Birkin and Emmanuelle Béart.
La belle noiseuse
Blu-ray
Cohen Media Group
1991 / Color / 1:37 flat full frame / 238 min. / The Beautiful Troublemaker / Street Date May 8, 2018 / 30.99
Starring: Michel Piccoli, Jane Birkin, Emmanuelle Béart, Marianne Denicourt, David Bursztein, Gilles Arbona, Marie Belluc.
Cinematography: William Lubtchansky
Film Editor: Nicole Lubtchansky
Paintings by (and ‘as the hands of the painter’): Bernard Dufour
Production design: Emmanuel de Chauvigny
Written by Pascal Bonitzer, Christine Laurent, Jacques Rivette from a story by Balzac
Produced by Martine Marignac,...
La belle noiseuse
Blu-ray
Cohen Media Group
1991 / Color / 1:37 flat full frame / 238 min. / The Beautiful Troublemaker / Street Date May 8, 2018 / 30.99
Starring: Michel Piccoli, Jane Birkin, Emmanuelle Béart, Marianne Denicourt, David Bursztein, Gilles Arbona, Marie Belluc.
Cinematography: William Lubtchansky
Film Editor: Nicole Lubtchansky
Paintings by (and ‘as the hands of the painter’): Bernard Dufour
Production design: Emmanuel de Chauvigny
Written by Pascal Bonitzer, Christine Laurent, Jacques Rivette from a story by Balzac
Produced by Martine Marignac,...
- 5/12/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Tenth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-presented by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series concludes this weekend. — The Classic French Film Festival celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the mid-1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema.
There are three more events for the Tenth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival happening this weekend:
Friday, March 23rd at 7:00pm – Le Samourai
In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts. After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trenchcoat can protect him. An elegantly stylized masterpiece of cool by maverick director Jean‑Pierre Melville, “Le samouraï” is a razor-sharp cocktail of 1940s American...
There are three more events for the Tenth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival happening this weekend:
Friday, March 23rd at 7:00pm – Le Samourai
In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts. After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trenchcoat can protect him. An elegantly stylized masterpiece of cool by maverick director Jean‑Pierre Melville, “Le samouraï” is a razor-sharp cocktail of 1940s American...
- 3/19/2018
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Cannes film reviews - 'La Belle Noiseuse'
CANNES -- Based loosely on Balzac's story ''The Unknown Masterpiece,'' Jacques Rivette's ''La Belle Noiseuse'' (The Beautiful Troublemaker), winner of the Grand Prix award here, sketches the crisis of a famous painter who can't finish the canvas of a painting he started 10 years ago -- titled, of course, ''La Belle Noiseuse.''
Running at a slow-paced four hours in length, it's drama, drained of catharsis, will warm the bones of only Rivette fans and dedicated avant-garde enthusiasts.
As the story goes, the painter Edouard Frenhofer (Michel Piccoli) abandoned Paris for an isolated retreat in the south of France, where he lives with his wife Liz (Jane Birkin) and receives occasional visits from his chemist friend Porbus. One day, Nicolas, a young painter and admirer of Frenhofer, pays a visit to the house, together with his girlfriend, Marianne.
From that point on it's a game of one-upmanship as Frenhofer becomes interested in finishing his ''masterpiece, '' this time however with the attractive young Marianne as his model instead of his wife Liz. Like the four protagonists in ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' a rather serene landscape at the outset degenerates toward the end into souls stripped of tranquility and primed for tragedy.
All of which might have gone down rather easily as a film, save that this is Rivette. Lines are delivered in monotone without passion while the camera picks up people in languid movement, like chess players feeling each other out as they jockey for position on the board.
If Rivette wasn't a perfectionist on moving his actors around against precisely chosen backgrounds -- thus creating images that generally please the eye -- ''La Belle Noiseuse'' might have petered out entirely by the midway point. And for those who harbor a curiosity over just who might be the real painter dabbing away at the canvas -- it's Bernard Dufour, whose credit is a hand ''acting'' out some of the best scenes in the picture.
LA BELLE NOISEUSE
(France-Switzerland)
Pierre Grise Prods., FR3 Films Prods. (France), George Reinhart Prods. (Switzerland)
Producers Pierre Grise, George Reinhart
Director Jacques Rivette
Screenwriters Jacques Rivette, Pascal Bonitzer,
Christine Laurent, Bernard Dufour
Based on ''The Unknown Masterpiece''Balzac
Director of photography Willy Lubtchansky
Art director Emmanuel de Chauvigny
Editor Nicole Lubtchansky
Color
Starring: Michel Piccoli, Jane Birkin, Emmanuelle Beart, Marianne Denicourt, David Bursztein, Gilles Arbona
Running time -- 240 minutes
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
Running at a slow-paced four hours in length, it's drama, drained of catharsis, will warm the bones of only Rivette fans and dedicated avant-garde enthusiasts.
As the story goes, the painter Edouard Frenhofer (Michel Piccoli) abandoned Paris for an isolated retreat in the south of France, where he lives with his wife Liz (Jane Birkin) and receives occasional visits from his chemist friend Porbus. One day, Nicolas, a young painter and admirer of Frenhofer, pays a visit to the house, together with his girlfriend, Marianne.
From that point on it's a game of one-upmanship as Frenhofer becomes interested in finishing his ''masterpiece, '' this time however with the attractive young Marianne as his model instead of his wife Liz. Like the four protagonists in ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' a rather serene landscape at the outset degenerates toward the end into souls stripped of tranquility and primed for tragedy.
All of which might have gone down rather easily as a film, save that this is Rivette. Lines are delivered in monotone without passion while the camera picks up people in languid movement, like chess players feeling each other out as they jockey for position on the board.
If Rivette wasn't a perfectionist on moving his actors around against precisely chosen backgrounds -- thus creating images that generally please the eye -- ''La Belle Noiseuse'' might have petered out entirely by the midway point. And for those who harbor a curiosity over just who might be the real painter dabbing away at the canvas -- it's Bernard Dufour, whose credit is a hand ''acting'' out some of the best scenes in the picture.
LA BELLE NOISEUSE
(France-Switzerland)
Pierre Grise Prods., FR3 Films Prods. (France), George Reinhart Prods. (Switzerland)
Producers Pierre Grise, George Reinhart
Director Jacques Rivette
Screenwriters Jacques Rivette, Pascal Bonitzer,
Christine Laurent, Bernard Dufour
Based on ''The Unknown Masterpiece''Balzac
Director of photography Willy Lubtchansky
Art director Emmanuel de Chauvigny
Editor Nicole Lubtchansky
Color
Starring: Michel Piccoli, Jane Birkin, Emmanuelle Beart, Marianne Denicourt, David Bursztein, Gilles Arbona
Running time -- 240 minutes
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 5/21/1991
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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