La Belle Noiseuse (1991)

100% of critics liked it
(23 reviews)
81% of users liked it
(2,609 ratings)

In this fascinating and unconventional examination of the creative process, an artist near the end of his career finds new inspiration in a young model. Edouard Frenhofer (Michel Piccoli) is a famous and well-respected artist who lives in a comfortable estate in the French countryside. At the age of… More In this fascinating and unconventional examination of the creative process, an artist near the end of his career finds new inspiration in a young model. Edouard Frenhofer (Michel Piccoli) is a famous and well-respected artist who lives in a comfortable estate in the French countryside. At the age of 60, Frenhofer considers his career as a painter to be over; he says he no longer feels any inspiration to create, and his last attempt at a major work, a nude study of his wife Liz (Jane Birkin) called "La Belle Noiseuse" (The Beautiful Nuisance), has sat unfinished for ten years. Just as Frenhofer has lost his enthusiasm for his art, he has also lost his passion for Liz; their relationship is polite and friendly, but without enthusiasm. When Frenhofer tells Nicolas (David Bursztein), his young protégé, that he no longer feels the desire to paint, Nicolas suggests that he needs a more inspiring subject, and he offers his girlfriend Marianne (Emmanuelle Béart) as a model. Frenhofer is taken with Marianne's beauty, and, with Liz's cool approval, he and Marianne spend several arduous sessions together, exchanging ideas and opinions as Frenhofer methodically attempts to create a final masterpiece. While La Belle Noiseuse runs 240 minutes, director Jacques Rivette also prepared an alternate version, La Belle Noiseuse - Divertimento, which runs 120 minutes, features a different framing sequence, and incorporates takes unused in the original cut. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 4 hr.
Directed By: Jacques Rivette
Written By: Pascal Bonitzer, Christine Laurent, Jacques Rivette
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Sep 4, 1991 Wide
On DVD: Jul 6, 2004

Critic Reviews

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Rivette's superb sense of rhythm and mise en scene never falters, and the plot has plenty of twists.
Vincent Canby, New York Times
Hypnotically beautiful.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Some movies are worlds that we can sink into, and La Belle Noiseuse is one of them.
Hal Hinson, Washington Post
The underlying ideas may be a little droopy, but they're staged in such exacting, private terms that they are redeemed.
Desson Thomson, Washington Post
What's good about the film is the sense of real evolution, of believable character change, instead of the Speedy Gonzalez transformations movie characters usually experience. What's also good is a realistic feel for the act of creation.
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Like all great works of art, the film has a purity of line and structure as it plays out its theme.
Keith Uhlich, Slant Magazine
Jacques Rivette's much praised Cannes Grand Prize winner vacillates between genuine insight and didactic mystique-of-the-artist bull****.
Geoff Andrew, Time Out
As impeccably shot as its subject deserves, the film is more accessible than most of Rivette's work, with characteristically playful passing nods to the relationship between life and performance.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
I won't explain what happens with the masterpiece; even at four hours, the film cooks up a certain amount of suspense and surprise.
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com
In this molasses-slow four-hour drama, Jacques Rivette proves that he's got an understanding of fine art, but a minimal one of the art of movies.
Mark Robison, Reno Gazette-Journal
One of the best movies about painting.
, Film4
The characters are unsympathetic, the circumstances are hard to relate to, the dialogue is laboured and the running time brutal. But there is also a surfeit of intelligence and beauty (in technical filmmaking terms) in Rivette's difficult film.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
A four-hour French masterpiece about the creative process of an artist
Jeremy Heilman, MovieMartyr.com
By methodically examining the rigors and contemplation that go into creating great art, French New Wave master Jacques Rivette, has created something of a masterpiece himself.

Read all 14 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

Josh M

La Belle Nosieuse is fours long, slow moving and mezmerizing. I wish I knew how Jacques Rivette pulls that off. The story of a blocked elderly genius artist Frenhofer (Michelle Piccoli) who is brought back to creative life by a young fiery woman Marianne (Emmanuelle Beart in her… More
La Belle Nosieuse is fours long, slow moving and mezmerizing. I wish I knew how Jacques Rivette pulls that off. The story of a blocked elderly genius artist Frenhofer (Michelle Piccoli) who is brought back to creative life by a young fiery woman Marianne (Emmanuelle Beart in her second movie) who becomes his model and muse. Marianne is the partner of a much young artist, and their relationship changes for the worse when she commits body and soul to modeling for the old guy. The gorgeous Beart is naked for much of the film, and though she's beyond stunning, somehow it's not as hot as you would imagine, just interesting. PIccoli's loyal wife and former model (Jane Birkin) is no longer inspiring him, so she's devastated yet empathetic, making her the perfect wife for an artist. The film touches on lots of rich emotional ground, about the evolving nature of long relationships, youthful artistic vision vs. autumnal artistic closure, the creative process and its volatility and the toll that art takes on love. Huge long sequences that feel almost 'real time' show the artist sketching in long drawn out shots, with the intense sound of a scratching pen and shots of Beart straining in a series of excruciating poses. These moments are utterly engrossing and take a large bulk of the film's running time, depicting an endlessly complex collaboration between artist and model, Piccoli and Beart are totally committed to their roles and boundlessly interesting throughout. The twists and turns of their relationship are riveting or Rivette-ing. Rivette doesn't even show the final painting to the audience, (though the model and the wife see it, their reactions are unforgettable) and it didn't annoy me! It's almost too sacred to show. This snail's paced film will not appeal to everyone, it lacks the thrills per minute of The Avengers, and is even more slow paced than lugubrious flicks like Melacholia and The Tree of Life. However, if you're into thinking about art and you've got four hours to spare, your patience will be richly rewarded. Noiseuse is one of the crown jewels of the French cinema.
Mark A

Action? None. Plot? No. Dialogue? Not much. And yet, I found it fascinating to watch the creative process. I enjoyed watching the two main characters interact. As Edouard (Piccoli) exerted his will over Marianne (Beart), and her resistance gave way to entering into the collaborative… More
Action? None. Plot? No. Dialogue? Not much. And yet, I found it fascinating to watch the creative process. I enjoyed watching the two main characters interact. As Edouard (Piccoli) exerted his will over Marianne (Beart), and her resistance gave way to entering into the collaborative process, then Edouard also became more inspired and began to demand more of Marianne. And yes, that Emmanuelle Beart was nude for long stretches more than made up for the weakness of the script. Scenery? Ahhhh!
Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]"La Belle Noiseuse" and "L'Enfer" are two French movies starring Emmanuelle Beart, directed by two very different directors who emerged from the French new wave, Jacques Rivette and Claude Chabrol, respectively.[/font] [font=Century… More
[font=Century Gothic]"La Belle Noiseuse" and "L'Enfer" are two French movies starring Emmanuelle Beart, directed by two very different directors who emerged from the French new wave, Jacques Rivette and Claude Chabrol, respectively.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic][color=blue]"La Belle Noiseuse" starts out with a young artist and his wife, Marianne(Beart) visiting legendary artist, Frenhofer(Michel Piccoli), in the countryside. Frenhofer mentions a long abandoned project - La Belle Noiseuse, a painting of a 17th century courtesan. The young painter, Nicolas, offers his wife as a model without asking her. This of course angers her to no end but nonetheless she returns to pose the following morning. [/color][/font] [font=Century Gothic][color=blue][/color][/font] [font=Century Gothic][color=blue]I liked "La Belle Noiseuse" in that it tries to convey the artist-model relationship and how it evolved as the painting continued. It is a beautiful looking film and I especially liked it when it got both artist and model in the same frame. It also examined the relationship of an artist to his/her spouse and how self-involved the artist can get. So much so, that the spouse needs to find an individual life. Frenhofer's wife(Jane Birkin) seems to have a thriving taxidermy hobby on the side and Marianne may have found a path by the end of the movie. Emmanuelle Beart gives a very courageous performance.[/color][/font] [font=Century Gothic][color=#0000ff][/color][/font] [font=Century Gothic][color=red][/color][/font] [font=Century Gothic][color=red]"L'Enfer" starts out with the marriage between a happy young couple, Paul(Francois Cluzet, who reminded me of a young Robert DeNiro) and Nelly(Emmanuelle Beart). Paul is the owner of a thriving resort hotel but the stress and lack of sleep is driving him to become very, very jealous of his wife. What we see is from Paul's point of view and thus we get to see his growing madness but I do not like the idea that madness can be used as an excuse for Paul's abusive behavior. By abusive, I mean that he tries to control Nelly's movements and I find that rather unpleasant. Plus, this is a shoddily shot movie.[/color][/font]
Daisy M

La Belle Noiseuse took me 2 days to finish it. Simple it was a 4 hour movie and wanted to take my time to watch it complete and take every detail the movie brought with it. The main point of the movie was to provide a sight of the burdens of an artists as he created art. The… More
La Belle Noiseuse took me 2 days to finish it. Simple it was a 4 hour movie and wanted to take my time to watch it complete and take every detail the movie brought with it. The main point of the movie was to provide a sight of the burdens of an artists as he created art. The challenge, conflict, sacrifice, frustration, and other expressions and emotions were portrayed. Many people would find this movie boring. It's a matter of taste I guess. I found the long sections of the artist sketching his model extremely admirable.The scenes between Piccoli and Béart were fascinating, because their relationship maintained professional..Emmanuelle Beart was beautiful, shy, uncomfortable with being nude, but as the hours progress into days, she felt comfort.Brilliant.
Dimitris S

Unique experience,transparent penetration to the painter's workshop....Rivette on top of the worldwide mindfuck coalition.