Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud (1995)

95% of critics liked it
(22 reviews)
79% of users liked it
(803 ratings)

Almost a follow-up to director Claude Sautet's Un Coeur en Hiver (1992), Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud further explores repressed emotions and failed relationships. Nelly (Emmanuelle Béart), an attractive young woman, is six months behind in her rent and struggling with odd jobs, while her husband… More Almost a follow-up to director Claude Sautet's Un Coeur en Hiver (1992), Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud further explores repressed emotions and failed relationships. Nelly (Emmanuelle Béart), an attractive young woman, is six months behind in her rent and struggling with odd jobs, while her husband (Charles Berling) lies in bed reading newspapers and watching TV. Her friend Jacqueline introduces her to Pierre Arnaud (Michel Serrault), a retired judge and wealthy ex-businessman, who offers to settle Nelly's debt. She agrees and is later so disappointed by her husband's indifferent reaction that she leaves him. Arnaud asks her to be his secretary because he needs help in typing his memoirs. Though obviously attracted to her, he rarely expresses his emotions, and he suddenly erupts only when he finds out about Nelly's affair with his young publisher Vincent (Jean-Hugues Anglade). The film won Césars from the French Academy of Cinema for Best Director and Best Actor, although it lost Best Film to Mathieu Kassovitz's more innovative La haine. ~ Yuri German, Rovi

Play Trailer

Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 45 min.
Directed By: Claude Sautet
Written By: Jacques Fieschi, Claude Sautet, Yves Ulmann
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Apr 12, 1996 Wide
On DVD: Mar 8, 2005
Studio: New Yorker

Critic Reviews

Desson Thomson, Washington Post
Writer-director Sautet's great achievement is to introduce a world of undefinable impulses; the two actors' great achievement is to step into that world and experience them.
Janet Maslin, New York Times
With a fine appreciation for the nuances of polite repression, Sautet makes a quiet, careful study of these two lonely people.
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
It's one sign of Sautet's success that, though he presents neither character as especially admirable or exceptional, he makes us care about them a great deal.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
It is a matter of great erotic fascination when two people are intrigued by the notion of becoming lovers, but are held back by the fear of rejection _and_ the fear of involvement.
Joe Baltake, Sacramento Bee
Sautet avoids the pitfalls of the usual May-December romance by eschewing all the cliches.
James Berardinelli, ReelViews
These are two great actors giving top-notch performances, and the restrained romance they project is fascinating.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
Impeccably performed psychodrama about the search for intimacy.
Alex Albanese, Boxoffice Magazine
The film's structure and resolute lack of closure deeply subvert American expectations of how a movie should be, how a movie should work and how a story is told. But it's worth a look, however quizzical.
Stephen Farber, Movieline
Takes a familiar French story of a May-December romance and renders it with unexpected nuance and uncommon wisdom.