La Belle Noiseuse
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| La Belle Noiseuse | |
|---|---|
 Region 1 DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Jacques Rivette |
| Written by | Pascal Bonitzer Christine Laurent Jacques Rivette (freely based on Honoré de Balzac's short story "Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu") |
| Starring | Michel Piccoli Jane Birkin Emmanuelle Béart Marianne Denicourt |
| Music by | Igor Stravinsky |
| Release date(s) | September 4, 1991 |
| Running time | 237 minutes |
| Country | France / Switzerland |
| Language | French / English |
La Belle Noiseuse is a 1991 film directed by Jacques Rivette and starring Michel Piccoli, Jane Birkin, and Emmanuelle Béart. Its title means "The Beautiful Troublemaker". The film is loosely adapted from the short story "The Unknown Masterpiece" by the nineteenth-century French writer Honoré de Balzac.
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[edit] Plot
A famous reclusive painter, Frenhofer (Piccoli), lives quietly with his wife and former model (Birkin) in a large château in rural Languedoc-Roussillon. When a young artist visits him with his girlfriend Marianne (Béart), Frenhofer is inspired to commence work once more on a painting he long ago abandoned - La Belle Noiseuse - using Marianne as his model. The film painstakingly explores Frenhofer's creative rebirth. It uses lengthy real-time takes of the artist's hand (provided by Bernard Dufour) working on the canvas.
[edit] Reception
The film won the Grand Prix at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.[1]
The film had a good critical reception, and occasioned much comment on Béart's frank onscreen nudity and Rivette's characteristic use of an extreme running time.
Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert added the film to his Great Movies collection in April 2009.[2]
[edit] Alternative version
Rivette used alternate takes from the film and made changes in the scene order to produce a 125-minute version, La Belle Noiseuse: Divertimento, for television; it was also released theatrically in 1993.
[edit] Cast
- Michel Piccoli - Édouard Frenhofer
- Jane Birkin - Liz
- Emmanuelle Béart - Marianne
- Marianne Denicourt - Julienne
- David Bursztein - Nicolas
- Gilles Arbona - Porbus
- Marie Belluc - Magali
- Marie-Claude Roger - Françoise
- Leïla Remili - Maid
- Daphne Goodfellow - A tourist
- Susan Robertson - A tourist
- Bernard Dufour - The painter's hand
[edit] References
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: La Belle Noiseuse". festival-cannes.com. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/88/year/1991.html. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
- ^ "La Belle Noiseuse (1991)". Chicago Sun-Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090412/REVIEWS08/904129997/1004.
[edit] External links
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Tilaï tied with The Sting of Death |
Grand Prix du Jury, Cannes 1991 |
Succeeded by The Stolen Children |
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