Customer Reviews

Nathalie... (Original French ONLY Version)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Catherine (Fanny Ardant), a successful doctor, seems to be in a happy marriage with her businessman husband, Bernard (Gerard Depardieu), until she learns that Bernard is having an affair. She reacts to this news with some tears but seems otherwise unmoved. That same evening, she randomly strolls into a Gentlemans Club for a drink and happens to meet the beautiful stripper/prostitute, Marlene (Emmanuelle Béart), who seems very curious and interested in Catherine. After some conversation, Catherine decides to hire Marlene (whom she re-names "Nathalie") to seduce her husband and report their sexual activities back to Catherine. The sexual game between Nathalie, Catherine, and Bernard takes strange twists and turns, with each scene exposing more about each character...and how their relationship changes with one another, as well as within their own self. Excellent film, directed by Anne Fontaine, this DVD includes the French version film with English subtitles, a making-of documentary (with no subtitles), a photo gallery, and a trailer that includes one of the smashing songs from the movie. Highly recommended. You can buy this from Amazon.ca, the Canadian site.

Nathalie is a 2003 film by Anne Fontaine (Dry Cleaning, My Father and I), starring Fanny Ardant, Emmanuelle Béart and Gérard Depardieu. It is a sophisticated attempt to look at the ways people betray each other, based on the murky dynamics of a long term marriage, but I would recommend it only to dedicated fans of the director or stars. Much more successful in my opinion is La Séparation, a 1994 film by Christian Vincent. Not that Nathalie is a bad film exactly, but its flaws get in the way.

For one, the script (rewritten by Fontaine) is propelled by a relentless series of coincidences, the kind of thing that gives melodrama a bad name. It all starts when Catherine (Ardant) the fond wife of Bernard (Depardieu), a highly mobile Parisian businessman, finds his mobile phone which he has left lying around the home (that carelessness must have stuffed up his day). Like any good wife would, she goes through and reads his messages. Instead of boring business stuff, she finds a message from someone he has spent the night with who politely thanks him for the sex. Now if husband and wife had been playing mind games with one another we might guess Bernard has left his phone at home on purpose and that the message might or might not be genuine. But they are shown as a long term couple, with their sex life taking a lag, whom are genuinely fond of one another. So its one of those just happened scenarios: phone just happened to be lying around, wife just happened to read the messages, one just happened to be about the husband's infidelity. Catherine is distraught; she drives home from work, stops to think things over, and just happens to find herself parked outside a bar/brothel with a flashy neon sign, where she sees a prostitute say goodbye to a client. She enters, is approached by a prostitute called Marlène (Béart) whom she hires to seduce her husband, under the name of Nathalie. We might imagine all kinds of reasons why, but the film doesn't tell us.

This series of events I call plot devices, unlikely events which are cursorily said to have taken place so that the situation the author is really interested in can be set up. Some will be able to view so far and say, "Ah, the French, so impulsive...". Me, I'm wondering why nobody has left me a message on my phone thanking me for the sex. And I'm damn sure I'll take it with me, in case they do (more useful if you have the thing with you anyway). And are brothels really so up market as all that in France? I got annoyed at what I saw as careless scriptwriting.

Another bother was the acting. I know that Depardieu, Béart and Ardant are good actors, but here they were monotonous. Ardant, betrayed by her husband as she supposes, never tries to find out why. Instead she spends most of the film with a look of suffering on her face. It's well done; you know what she's feeling. Only, it would be a relief if she would get angry, sarcastic, bitter, depressed, self pitying, try to win Bernard back by looking seductive - after an hour of watching her suffer I found myself getting impatient with her. Depardieu plays a self depreciatory (!) man clumsily fond of his wife and pitifully anxious about her. He spends the film that way, and only the fact that we don't see much of him makes him less monotonous than the other actors. Béart has a role with some development, as the bi-sexual hooker who falls for Catherine, strings her along by talking dirty about what she and Bernard get up to, and gets dumped in the end. She gets to show what's going on between her and Catherine while talking about herself and Bernard, which is interesting.

I found myself unsure what the film was focusing on as I watched. Apparently about the marriage of Catherine and Bernard, but is it really about the relationship between Marlène/Nathalie and Catherine? Or was the director/screenwriter trying to give equal billing to her three major stars? There was some rough editing towards the end of the film, with scenes involving Béart which were not long enough to be establishing, the kind of shots that left me wondering, now what was that supposed to be about? I imagined a film about an unfulfilled housewife who turns to a lesbian love affair which had been sanitised by removing the scenes of two women making love and tacking on a conventional ending. The ending came out of nowhere and seemed to have little to do with the body of the film.

Watch the film if delving into relationship politics is your cup of tea. Maybe you can review it here and resolve some of my doubts.

The French have a way with steamy films that makes the rest of the cinematic world seem bland in comparison. NATHALIE is fine case in point. Based on an idea by Philippe Blasband and transformed into a superb screenplay by Jacques Fieschi, François-Olivier Rousseau and the director Anne Fontaine, this incredibly well acted, subtle, understated film explores the many facets of adultery - from the woman's point of view. The result is a suspenseful, erotic, intelligent film that provides an opportunity for three of France's greatest actors to demonstrate their credentials.

Catherine (the still very beautiful and gifted Fanny Ardant) is a gynecologist married to the successful Bernard (Gérard Depardieu in one of his more subtle roles) and they have a stay-at-home hippy son (Rodolphe Pauly) who goes about his life much the same as his parents: there is superficial companionship but little in depth relationship. The marriage seems satisfactory until Catherine suspects Bernard of having affairs, a fact that Bernard very honestly confesses to having: in his eyes the affairs are sexual dalliances that mean nothing. Catherine is shocked, attempts to gain some support from her insular but worldly mother (a fine Judith Magre) who tells Catherine it is a normal situation in older marriages.

Catherine visits a bar, a private club for consignations, and there she meets Marlène (the extraordinary Emmanuelle Béart) and eventually buys Marlène's services as a prostitute to meet her husband and then tell her all about the encounters. It is agreed that Marlène will be known as 'Nathalie'. From this point on Catherine and Nathalie meet after Nathalie has encounters with Bernard and describes the acts of the encounters in vivid and lurid detail. Catherine is fascinated and continues to pay Nathalie for on going encounters and subsequent voyeuristic descriptions. Catherine even has a one-night stand of her own with bartender François (Wladimir Yordanoff) in an attempt to understand her husband's need for infidelity.

Despite the setup of 'private investigator and prostitute detective' the two women become friends. When Catherine realizes she has enough evidence against Bernard to leave him there is a final encounter of the three (Catherine, Bernard, Nathalie) that brings the ingenious surprise ending - an ending to fine to share as it would spoil the film for viewers new to the story.

Ardant is simply radiant as Catherine, playing the role of the victim wife of an adulterous husband with supreme dignity. Likewise Depardieu makes his Bernard so understated and profoundly honest that the conclusion in retrospect should have been suspected. Béart is at once wholly physical in her prostitute role yet maintains the inner core of a confused woman that keeps us on her side as she does her job. The production values are all first rate (except for some ragged editing) and the direction of Anne Fontaine is bristling with intrigue and wholly convincing in her development of this strange tale. Despite the dialogue being X-rated there is very little actual sex in this film: that makes it not only more powerful but as the ending is revealed adds to the solidity of the story. In French with English subtitles. Highly recommended for art film lovers. Grady Harp, December 06

If you were smitten by Emmanuelle Beart in Mission Impossible and want to see her at her sexiest... Nathalie is the movie for you. This is an intelligent erotic french film which features Marlene(Emmanuelle) as the "other" woman hired by Catherine(Fanny Ardant) to seduce her husband Bernard(Gerard Depardieu).

If you are seeing this movie as a Depardieu fan... his role is secondary. This movie is focused on the women characters.

The story is really about the sexual growth of Catherine as she becomes more obsessed with the erotic details of her husband's affair and her own realization about her inner self. What is so great about Fanny Ardant's performance is that by the end of the movie you become just as fascinated with her on both a human and erotic level as you are with Emmanuelle Beart. Ardant evokes a very intelligent sexual powerful character here and thus reminded me alot of another Catherine (Deneuve) at her best.

There is also an interesting twist to discover.

This original script begins with desperation: a middle aged woman does not know how to face the progressive decay of her unbearable marriage. They do not even m,ake love in months and their commuciation is a mere formality.
In search of a solution, she bets for an idea very very dangerous. She hires a prostitute to seduce her husband and gets more information about the secret pleasures and sexual tastes of him.
As you know this premise is full of surprises. Fanny Ardant as the cheated woman, Depardieu as the cold husband and the seductive Emannuelle Beart as the lovable and sexy pros, will make a true tour de force with this slow script that tends to fall down in the middle of the road and succesfully emerges with new airs from the second half of the picture.
The final will surprise you and by obvious reasons it's better for all not to give you just any clue. It would not be fair at all.
Go for this challenging, provocative and very smart movie that will make you think over and over.
Another additional triumph of the French creative power.

The elegant Catherine (Fanny Ardant) discovers her husband, Gerard Depardieu is doing what men do...having a "banal" affair. When Catherine asks her husband for details, her husband can't or won't provide them. Catherine hires a prostitute, the gorgeous Emmanuelle Beart, to seduce her husband and reveal her husband's erotic proclivities. Nathalie's ensuing tales of lust and passion propagate an understated sexual tension between her and Catherine that will make any viewer weak in the knees.

A surprisingly good movie. I didn't think there could be a more unlikely romance, but by the end of this film I was begging for Catherine and Nathalie to "just kiss already". What can I say? I'm a hopeless romantic. The erotic talk, the slow seduction, two gorgeous and intelligent women, scotch and cigarettes, broken hearts and understated lust, Paris, feminine vulnerability and strength...probably the most sexy movie I've seen. Recommended.

I figured out pretty quickly (as did most people, I imagine) that the hooker (Beart) hired by the wife (Ardan) to service her husband (Depardieu) was describing sexual encounters that never occurred. The movie owns up to this fact rather late in the story and makes that a key plot point, which fell flat on me because it told me what I already knew.

Far better for the movie to have gone boldly where Maupassant took the story and show a love affair developing between Beart and Ardan, I mean way beyond the sly hints we get, and then have the husband find out and show how he reacts to the event. Does he fight to get his wife back? Does he do something violent? Does he throw in the towel and move on with his life? Does he throw himself into the river (as in M's story)? All these are far more interesting options than the one chosen. If M could write a love story between two beautiful women in mid-19th century, I should think someone could do that today. Okay, maybe not as well because M was a master story teller and his command of French prose was way beyond what a screenwriter could do. Still, opportunity missed.

By the way, the sleazy DVD cover is misleading. Beart handles her portrayal of a "belle de jour" with restraint. She doesn't do a strip tease in the movie.

Fanny Ardant, Emmanuelle Beart, and Gerard Depardieu. Three French icons are in one film about love. That's 'Nathalie...' in a nutshell, and the film's content (directed by actress-tunred-director Anne Fontaine, 'Dry Cleaning') is very intriguing, if not plausible. But the film works at a certain level, about the sexuality of women seen through the eye of woman, and if you're interested in that kind of theme, this is for you.

The film begins with Catherine (Ardant) and Bernard (Depardieu), wife and husband who have been long married. Because of one message left in the husband's cellphone, Catherine comes to know what he was doing last night. And Bernard says their marriage life is dying slowing, perhaps sexually.

Then Catherine, herself working as doctor, 'hires' a prostitute Marlene (Beart) at a night club where the male customers go upstairs with ladies. Here they make a deal. Marlene should approach to unsuspecting Bernard at a cafe, and seduce him, first asking for a light. And then she should report all the details about the love affair and his behaviors in bed to Catherine, who in turn eagerly listens to what Marlene, now called Nathalie, says to her.

For all its contrived story, very talky dialogues, and its too obvious 'twist,' 'Nathalie' manages to interest us when it focuses on the unlikely relations between Catherine and Marlene/Nathalie. It's a typical case of one who needs something from the other, and then understands her in spite of various differences between them.

lastly, the acting is perfect, which means a great thing for the film is basically made only with three characters. And the music by Michael Nyman is another merit.

The main thing that kept me watching this movie was the two female leads: both very French, very elegant and sexy and alluring in that distinctive French way...and of course, very neurotic and opaque in that distinctive French way.

Gerard Depardieu is presented as a highly attractive/desirable man---something I had a very hard time swallowing, as he has a Frankenstein-ish sort of physique and bearing in addition to a monstrous proboscis and kept making me think about the Hunchback of Notre Dame for some reason---who is in a sexless (but, as it turns out, not entirely loveless) marriage with an impeccably genteel doctor who discovers that he's been (gasp!) cheating on her. She reacts more like an American than a French wife...which is to say, badly. But then she does something that no prudish American wife would ever dream of doing: she hires a hooker (Emmanuelle Beart, painfully French as usual) to seduce dear hubby and share all the carnal details with her, in a campaign of both voyeurism and masochism. Along the way the two women form an interesting friendship, with some oblique lesbian overtones.

Luckily there are enough plot twists along the way and the ending is surprisingly unpredictable, so the viewer's interest is kept fairly well engaged despite the leisurely (i.e. very French) pacing. This also made up for some awkward, amateurish and ludicrously unconvincing scenes of Beart wearing bad makeup, tacky lingerie, and doing an atrocious job of pretending to be a sex kitten.

3 and 1/2 stars. This is a film worth seeing once, not more.

This French film 2004 tells the story of a unique relationship between two women involved with the same man, one experience is through fantasy, another for reality.

Bernard (Gerard Depardieu) is married to a gynecologist Katherine (Fanny Ardant). The 25 year marriage has drifted, lacking sexual and/or intimate times. They have drifted apart and occasionally he cheats on the side. They both admit that the marriage is going sour and after all those souring years Katherine decides to find out what does turn him on, what pleasures does he enjoy.

She wanders to a gentlemen's club and meets Nathalie (Emmanuelle Beart) a strikingly beautiful prostitute. Katherine propositions Nathalie to entice and seduce her husband, and report the experience back to her. Katherine pays the prostitute. The two women often meet at the gentlemen's club and Katherine learns and lives her sexual fantasy through Nathalie's experiences which include sexually graphic language.

Much of the action takes place at the home of Katherine but also at the beautiful gentlemen's club. Depardieu's role is supporting and takes a backseat to Ardant's and Beart's major roles. The pacing is even and watching this, it keeps one wondering what the next step will be for the three characters involved.

Director Anne Fontaine's filmography includes extensive roles as an actor, writer, and director. We see Fontaine at work in a short feature piece for the Making of Nathalie.

The French film made in 2004 is now a remake Chloe 2009 that stars Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore. ......Rizzo