Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud

When you gotta go you gotta go and if Claude Sautet had to go he certainly went in style. He gave us some of the finest and most durable films in late 20th century French cinema - Vincent, Francois, Paul et les Autres, En Cour en Hiver and so many more, films we can watch again and again with renewed pleasure and he signed off with a doozy. It is, of course, a cliché that only the French know how to handle the man-woman relationship in all its nuances, unorthodoxy, etc, but one worth repeating. Its all too easy to imagine the clumsiness with which modern English/US directors would have handled the older man/younger woman situation that lies at the heart of this story but I'm ready to bet plenty of twelve-to-seven that none would have brought the delicacy of touch, subtlety that is synonymous with Sautet. When we talk of a 'mood' piece we think of Chekhov and Sautet invokes the Russian master in spinning out of thin air a fragile, gossamer-thin tacit understanding between his two leads. Beart is almost too impossibly beautiful to be true and she needs to be the fine actress she is to get past the handicap of classical features while Serrault is a consummate actor still turning out great performances. A word too about the support, Michele Laroque, a stand-up comedienne in her spare time, brings the same solid support here as she did later in Francis Veber's 'Le Placard'. I can pay this movie no higher compliment than to bracket it with 'Brief Encounter', another masterpiece of unconsummated love that is still enchanting audiences fifty years on, as Nelly and Mr. Arnaud surely will be.

I guess the main reason for "Nelly" to be one of the most popular Eruopean movies of the last years is the presence of the Goddess Beart in each and every one of the sequences: her eyes, her mouth, her perfection. Without any make-up, without wonderful dresses... she does not need anything but her natural beauty to make Mr. Arnaud to fall in love her. He hires her as a personal assistant while he's writing his memoirs, but she'll end up being his closest confident. The connection between both of them is neither sexual nor platonic... it's something else. Maybe they're just kindred spirits that meet each other at the wrong time: he knows she's too young and beautiful to stay with him. It doesn't matter if she'd be willing to begin a relationship with Arnaud, 'cause the truth is that he won't let her beauty to fade in the company of an old man which has anything but memories.

This is a sober and reflexive movie, that doesn't live up to its world wide fame (in my opinion); but, as I said before, the presence of Emmanuelle Beart worth watching it.

*My rate: 7/10

What a beautiful, tender film...melancholy in tone, with an underlying sense of passion! I was so moved by it I was inspired to write a poem . There might be those (militant feminists, perhaps) who would object to the theme of an older man yearning (but discreetly) for a beautiful much younger woman...but I found it not only true to life, but humanly evocative. What a genius for film-making...Claude Sautet..("Un Coeur En Hiver" his masterpiece, in my opinion). He will be sadly missed. Thank you and farewell, M.Sautet.

This comment, in the form of a poem, is dedicated to the late Claude Sautet, one of France's premier directors...

NELLY ET M. ARNAUD

Empty shelves: his library divested. Nothing written, except memory, invests this moment, this immediacy. In the dim light his worn hand almost caresses her young body, but we, in the dark, must estimate the camera's intent. What he had held in abeyance too long shadows his face.

And the rain, the hard Parisian rain. Cognac at tables for two. Another man, a younger man. These scenes will lead us to believe in temporary convenience... the "stolen moments." Vivid beauty flashed on the computer screen, four centuries preserved. Manipulated, changed, "seared with trade." What remains, embraced, has no passport, has no traveling bags. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Thank you and farewell, M. Sautet

Michel Serrault, of whom I have the highest regard for his great talent, hits yet another home run with this role. He portrays a wealthy widower, who per chance, meets a sweet young woman, many years his junior. Nellie needs a job and Mr. Arnaud needs an editor. The wonderful friendship that these two engage in, is so sweet and affecting; it'll remind even the most independent person that friends are as real and precious as gold. Mr. Serrault's character has a humor drier than sherry. A very good film.