Nathalie X

Would a woman, finding out that her husband has been having casual affairs (which he admits to, but says `they are nothing') hire a prostitute to seduce him and report back to her? I don't know, but maybe it's possible in France, a country which prides itself on the tidy management of sex in general. It does seem a rather bizarre way of putting some zing back into a flagging marriage. Fanny Ardant as the voyeuristic wife Catherine dominates the movie though she spends a lot of time staring off into the middle distance. Gérard Depardieu as Bernard the husband is reduced to a bit player. The most intriguing character is `Nathalie' the prostitute played with innocent charm by Emmanuelle Béart, who, though 38, manages to look 15 years younger. She might have a waif-like manner but she certainly has learned what men are like and what they want, and her accounts of her sessions with the husband seem all too authentic.

Unfortunately I worked out fairly early in the piece what was really going on. I won't spoil it for you dear reader, but it is all a bit anti-climactic. The film does have a genuine Parisian feel to it – crowded apartments (even that of the affluent married couple), bars, streets, restaurants, etc. All that elegant consumption and all that personal lack of fulfillment. It's almost a relief to discover that one of the patients at Catherine's gynaecology practice, though in her early 20s, is still a virgin.

In its favour, the movie does not drag on too long, and has in `Natalie' a genuinely intriguing character. She is not the usual desperate junkie - she is not without resources, and when not being a prostitute works as a hairdresser and beautician. Is she able to have a `normal' relationship with anyone? At one stage the temperature between her and Catherine gets quite warm. Or is she emotionally burnt out by the rigours of the game? Anne Fontaine as director doesn't seem to want to explore her most interesting character so we are left to guess.

Although you should never really judge a film by its poster/DVD cover, it's hard not to when the poster in question has Emmanuelle Beart looking very saucy and beautiful indeed. The film centres around a failing marriage, mainly from the wife's perspective as she hires a prostitute for her husband and get the low down on his filthy little sexual fantasies. Despite this sordid little set up the film is charmingly refrains itself from gratuitous erotic scenes by only having descriptions of the acts that go on. This results in a very 'talky' film, but still a very steamy and effective one. Ardant leads the film, and manages to give an effective performance as a rejected wife in a passionless marriage, although at some points during the film the audience is left to contemplate her motives, and what exactly she is hoping to achieve from this experiment. Beart, is the real star, not only because she is stunning and makes it impossible to look away from the film, but she also offers a complex character, who is creating a complex character for herself within the film. At times she seems strong and in charge, and sometimes she comes across as weak and insecure. The slow and subtle way the bizarre friendship between the two leads evolves is well handled by director Anne Fontaine. The slow pace of the film is also a delight as it perfectly presents the flow of the marriage itself. Gerard Depardieu isn't used enough, we never get to know the character, and characters opinions contradict what we see of him. However since the film is told from the wife's perspective, this is understandable. Paris is represented with the usual busy streets and coffee shops with small apartments, but this is certainly not a film about locale. Overall the film is a joy to look at, and very well made. An underrated gem to sit down with on a quiet afternoon.

I can't understand why this film got such bad reviews and why so many people seem to have a profound dislike for it. Are people really that impatient, have they been blighted by Hollywood movies to the point that they cannot appreciate something a bit more delicate? I found Nathalie tantalising, unpredictable, romantic. I identified & empathised with all the characters, and was interested throughout. Yes, it had quite a slow pace, and there was a lot of talking, but it had an interesting ending which surprised me, and it had a lot of style. It left a few things unsaid, which i like as it gives you a chance to explore the meanings of what you are seeing, almost like a self-psychoanalysis.

Ardant, Beart, & Depardieu all gave great performances. I also particularly liked the soundtrack (I normally hate movie music), and I'm not talking about Nyman's stuff, which somehow passed me by, but the gently throbbing house y, beat y, electro we would here in the club, and in the car (if my memory serves me correctly). This was the best selection of high class porno music I have ever heard, & I'm currently seeking the soundtrack as inspiration for some scenes I'm writing now.

Big-up Anne Fontaine for delivering a delicate, classy film, and big-up the writing team Philippe Blasband, Jacques Fieschi, François-Olivier Rousseau, & Fontaine for writing something intricate and involving :)

My own films are online at www.undeadarmy.org

Nathalie was recommended to me by a good friend with good taste in movies. So, I was disappointed when I watched a well-made movie with a hollow premise.

At the heart of the plot is a middle-aged wife who finds out her husband is sleeping around (as French husbands do, as her mother observes). Yet, she is cold in bed, and, worse, employs a beautiful winsome prostitute (to whom she gives the name Nathalie) as bait, to see how her husband behaves when he plays around.

In a seemingly obsessive manner, the wife seeks Nathalie's accounts of her encounters with the unsuspecting husband. And, the more she hears, the more she is hurt, and the colder she becomes towards her husband. The accounts are sexy and provide the momentum in the movie, but, as they grow in intensity, the wife becomes more and more ridiculous as she listens and does nothing as her marriage seems to be going down the gurgler. Does she WANT to lose her husband?? Why doesn't she use the stimulus of Nathalie's accounts to regain some of her waning sexual interest? Why doesn't she respond to the attempts of her husband to woo her back?

The twist in the end saves the movie, however, and just as well. This was a puzzling movie to me, with such a great cast, but with Fanny Ardant playing a dumb wife. French movies used to portray human relationships better this!

Despite good work from the three main leads (particularly the women), this is yet another self-satisfied would-be mature study of sexual mores in modern bourgeois French society. A man (Gerard Depardieu) who admits to his wife (Fanny Ardant) of having an occasional fling, is tricked by the latter in falling for a luscious stripper (an overage but still stunning Emmanuelle Beart) posing as the fictitious titular character. The ruse seems to work, with Ardant getting the sleazy lowdown from Beart soon after her every clandestine meeting with Depardieu. But everything is not as it seems...

Starting from the far-fetched premise that a woman would go to all that trouble to win her straying husband back, why should she then still act so coldly to him in private? Actually, I was expecting Ardant to adopt Beart's tricks-of-the-trade in her nightly dealings with Depardieu and not going out and having her own little flings. Anyway, the film is too episodically structured to be anything but a series of tale-telling (in the frankest possible manner, as can be expected from the French) of illicit rendezvous and one grows impatient with the film once he realizes that it's going nowhere very slowly.

As I said, however, the acting is top-notch and Michael Nyman's score is typically arresting. Being that the film is directed by a woman, I suppose that some sort of pro-feminist statement is being made here but, personally, I was far more intrigued by the tantalizing promise (on the DVD sleeve) of watching Beart's routines as a stripper - of which there were far too few (and far too chaste to boot for my liking), alas...