Its hard to think of anything negative about these two excellent films (not going to repeat the story again-there are plenty of reviews here). However its worth noting that the slowness in the pace of these films mirrors the lives and setting of the characters portraid within. If you have the time (4 hours) and patience you see the story unfolding rather than punching you in the face! The ending is one of the best, in that it is unexpected and jaw dropping. Ignore the negativity from other reviews, pseudo experts who hint but fail to suggest of better, buy them and see for yourself, it will be money well spent
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I loved it. Watched it Saturday night, then saw the extras. Watched it again on Sunday. How many other gems are there waiting to be discovered?
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Two middle aged men - Stephane and Maxime - work together restoring violins. The opening scene reveals exactly how close they are, how content - and how the reserved Stephane endures the stories of married Maxime's sexual dalliances but believes that nothing will ever disrupt their relationship - which is all the relationship Stephane wants or needs. His whole life consists only of his work, and the pleasure he draws from proximity with the more urbane Maxime.
When Camille appears on the scene and Maxime leaves his wife for her, (although she is young enough to be his daughter), this is an unprecedented threat to Stephane`s happiness. Neurotic Camille, herself embroiled in a hinted-at lesbian situation, is carelessly accustomed to men falling for ... Read More:
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Cruise again on another self funded pile of rubbish making out he can pretend as well as professional actors can. He can't, and yet again the bigness of face on the cover shows that he is the indestructable hero of the film. This is as silly as it gets, ruining a perfectly crap TV series and making it worse with this stunted half-wit bad actor nutjob playing the hero. Genuine actors must talk behind his back about his lack of skill. He should retire now to spare the embarrassment of not winning any decent awards for his version of pretending. A tragically bad film peppered with cheapness of script, camerawork and acting. Don't waste your time on this.
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What an odd film. Why should a happily married man suddenly become eaten up with jealousy in such an unreasonable manner? What was his motivation, other than that his wife is the unreasonably and unfairly gorgeous Emmanuelle Beart? Wouldn't most men have simply counted their blessings and enjoyed the rest of their lives together?
That was my problem with this film - I kept asking myself 'why' and reached no logical answer. And by the end, I barely cared.
Beart is one of my favourite actresses and she does the best she can, but this was a very disappointing film for me and unusually for a French film, I regret buying it.
I finished watching this movie horrendously confused. I was (and remain) confused by the several twists in the plot near the end; I'm simply not sure what happened in the end (I guess that was the whole point). But on a more fundamental level, I'm confused as to just what this movie was about. Relationships? Manipulation? Sex?
In all honesty, I saw very little substance in this movie. It had no strong message, nothing really to say. I am a big fan of French film -- "Ma Mere" is one of my favourites -- but I think this is an example of a movie that is basically mediocre but gets away with it simply because it is French and pretentious.
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The plot is very simple... a painter re-discovers his muse when he meets the girlfriend of one of his fans, because she reminds him of his wife, who used to be his model. After some persuasion she agrees to become his new model and he begins to paint his unfinished masterpiece "La Belle Noiseuse".
That's pretty much the plot in a nutshell and it yet it runs for the best part of 4 hours. Yes, it sounds dull and could so easily have been, but the tension created between the characters and the attention to detail, especially regarding the creative process makes it an extraordinary experience, quite unlike any other film I've seen.
If you want action and hate art or you just want a light-hearted night in front of the TV, this is not the movie for you. ... Read More:
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The plot is very simple... a painter re-discovers his muse when he meets the girlfriend of one of his fans, because she reminds him of his wife, who used to be his model. After some persuasion she agrees to become his new model and he begins to paint his unfinished masterpiece "La Belle Noiseuse".
That's pretty much the plot in a nutshell and it yet it runs for the best part of 4 hours. Yes, it sounds dull and could so easily have been, but the tension created between the characters and the attention to detail, especially regarding the creative process makes it an extraordinary experience, quite unlike any other film I've seen.
If you want action and hate art or you just want a light-hearted night in front of the TV, this is not the movie for you. ... Read More:
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