Beauty is only film deep

Nelly & Mr Arnaud
Directed by Claude Sautet
Starring Emmanuelle Beart, Michel Serrault and Jean-Hugues Anglade
Opens April 4
Reviewed by Margaret Allan

Nelly & Mr Arnaud is an engrossing French movie which draws the viewer into the developing relationship between the title characters. It is typical of the work of many contemporary French directors who weave stories of relationships into slow but emotionally charged films.

Emmanuelle Beart plays Nelly, a young woman whose beauty inspires much attention from most of those she encounters. She appears used to being fawned over and reacts to most people around her with cool detachment.

Nelly, unhappily married to "loser" Jerome, meets the debonair Mr Arnaud (Michael Serrault), a wealthy former judge in his 60s who offers to help her out of her financial troubles with a large sum of money (no strings attached). Quickly dumping her unemployed husband, she accepts Arnaud's offer of employment typing his memoirs and slowly, as they work together, a relationship develops.

At the same time, Nelly also becomes involved with Vincent, Arnaud's publisher (Jean-Hugues Anglade, last seen in Queen Margot), who seems to share her general lack of emotion regarding personal relationships.

The film depicts the development of these relationships, along with three or four other minor characters who pop in and out of their lives, including mutual friend Jacqueline (Claire Nadeau), Nelly's still fixated former lover, Christophe (Jean-Pierre Lorit), and a mysterious man from Arnaud's past (Michael Lonsdale).

Similar to A Heart in Winter, also directed by Sautet and also starring Emmanuelle Beart, Nelly & Mr Arnaud questions whether being beautiful is enough to create personal happiness. Although one seems to be left with the conclusion that it does not, it is, however, made apparent that beauty does have its material benefits. It could be argued that this is often true beyond the world of the movies, in a society where a great deal of emphasis is placed on women's physical appearance.

Nelly & Mr Arnaud is a good quality, enjoyable film that I would recommend to fans of European cinema. It may not be a film that will be remembered for many years to come, but it is a welcome change from the range of shallow Hollywood movies currently on offer.

From GLW issue 226