Nelly & M. Arnaud

Claude Sautet, France 1995, 107 minutes

Claude Sautet's film casts Emmanuelle Beart (Nelly) and Michel Serrault (M. Arnaud) in an unusual relationship. Nelly meets M. Arnaud when he offers to help her and her husband Jerome out of financial difficulties. However this leads to rifts in their relationship and she leaves him to work as Arnaud's assistant. Whilst she is working for him, Arnaud tries to get closer to her. However a meeting with an attractive young male editor disturbs the balance and then Arnaud's murky past begins to surface.

A film about trust, and emotional ordeal, Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud is reminiscent of Sautet's previous works, including the not dissimilar Un Couer En Hiver. Beart, as beautiful as ever, portrays a kind of feminine muse in her relationship with the older man, but also acts as a sink for many of Arnaud's deeper feelings. In doing so, she becomes less able to deal with her own world and problems and increasingly resorts to lies to try and evaluate the people nearest to her. Serrault, in contrast, portrays a man trying both to escape his past, and build his future. His relationship with Beart cannot easily be described but in her it is as if he can become a father figure and protector/helper - seen clearly in one central scene, when his hand hovers hesitantly over her naked back as she is sleeping then lowers to stroke it gently.

Like so much of French cinema, this film is less about the action and more about the emotions and restraints imposed on these feelings. It is about repression and oppression and the effects these can have. More importantly, it focuses on Sautet's fascination with the imagery of the beautiful young woman and the older man. Coupled with Beart's and Serrault's fine performances this is an intelligent and absorbing look at French life.

"A piece of class film-making... poignantly real and perceptive" - Premiere

Review by Neil Chue Hong
Taken from EUFS Programme 1996-97