User reviews

I can't understand why this film got such bad reviews and why so many people seem to have a profound dislike for it. Are people really that impatient, have they been blighted by Hollywood movies to the point that they cannot appreciate something a bit more delicate? I found Nathalie tantalising, unpredictable, romantic. I identified & empathised with all the characters, and was interested throughout. Yes, it had quite a slow pace, and there was a lot of talking, but it had an interesting ending which surprised me, and it had a lot of style. It left a few things unsaid, which i like as it gives you a chance to explore the meanings of what you are seeing, almost like a self-psychoanalysis.

Ardant, Beart, & Depardieu all gave great performances. I also particularly liked the soundtrack (I normally hate movie music), and I'm not talking about Nyman's stuff, which somehow passed me by, but the gently throbbing house y, beat y, electro we would here in the club, and in the car (if my memory serves me correctly). This was the best selection of high class porno music I have ever heard, & I'm currently seeking the soundtrack as inspiration for some scenes I'm writing now.

Big-up Anne Fontaine for delivering a delicate, classy film, and big-up the writing team Philippe Blasband, Jacques Fieschi, François-Olivier Rousseau, & Fontaine for writing something intricate and involving :)

My own films are online at www.undeadarmy.org

Nathalie was recommended to me by a good friend with good taste in movies. So, I was disappointed when I watched a well-made movie with a hollow premise.

At the heart of the plot is a middle-aged wife who finds out her husband is sleeping around (as French husbands do, as her mother observes). Yet, she is cold in bed, and, worse, employs a beautiful winsome prostitute (to whom she gives the name Nathalie) as bait, to see how her husband behaves when he plays around.

In a seemingly obsessive manner, the wife seeks Nathalie's accounts of her encounters with the unsuspecting husband. And, the more she hears, the more she is hurt, and the colder she becomes towards her husband. The accounts are sexy and provide the momentum in the movie, but, as they grow in intensity, the wife becomes more and more ridiculous as she listens and does nothing as her marriage seems to be going down the gurgler. Does she WANT to lose her husband?? Why doesn't she use the stimulus of Nathalie's accounts to regain some of her waning sexual interest? Why doesn't she respond to the attempts of her husband to woo her back?

The twist in the end saves the movie, however, and just as well. This was a puzzling movie to me, with such a great cast, but with Fanny Ardant playing a dumb wife. French movies used to portray human relationships better this!

I think "Nathalie..." is a very interesting film. Once again French moviemakers confirm they're among the best European and (to me) World directors. Because they're also able to show a simple story, a simple tale where there's room for feelings and sensations.

A woman discovers she's betrayed by her husband. She hires a prostitute to follow constantly and to seduce him. The wife wants always to be told what has happened (she also wants to know exactly the way the girl has had sex with the man). But between the two women a friendship grows and also in the marriage something changes... Thanks to the young girl the married couple will find again the dialogue. Without being melodramatic, the film has an original approach for telling a story about couple problems and human relationships. "Nathalie..." contains studies about that.

A movie directed by Anne Fontaine and led by a wonderful cast: Depardieu, Ardant and Béart (these are two of the most gorgeous women of French cinema...).

Despite good work from the three main leads (particularly the women), this is yet another self-satisfied would-be mature study of sexual mores in modern bourgeois French society. A man (Gerard Depardieu) who admits to his wife (Fanny Ardant) of having an occasional fling, is tricked by the latter in falling for a luscious stripper (an overage but still stunning Emmanuelle Beart) posing as the fictitious titular character. The ruse seems to work, with Ardant getting the sleazy lowdown from Beart soon after her every clandestine meeting with Depardieu. But everything is not as it seems...

Starting from the far-fetched premise that a woman would go to all that trouble to win her straying husband back, why should she then still act so coldly to him in private? Actually, I was expecting Ardant to adopt Beart's tricks-of-the-trade in her nightly dealings with Depardieu and not going out and having her own little flings. Anyway, the film is too episodically structured to be anything but a series of tale-telling (in the frankest possible manner, as can be expected from the French) of illicit rendezvous and one grows impatient with the film once he realizes that it's going nowhere very slowly.

As I said, however, the acting is top-notch and Michael Nyman's score is typically arresting. Being that the film is directed by a woman, I suppose that some sort of pro-feminist statement is being made here but, personally, I was far more intrigued by the tantalizing promise (on the DVD sleeve) of watching Beart's routines as a stripper - of which there were far too few (and far too chaste to boot for my liking), alas...

The expectations created by the dream cast, and the plot, boasted by this new film are very high. However, NATHALIE doesn't meet any of them. That is, unless you wanted to check out Fanny Ardant and Emmanuelle Béart. Yes, they are still gorgeous, and marvelous actresses, even when working with mediocre material.

The film is now being premiered (even before released in its native France) in the 2nd Annual "French Film Festival" (a translation of the event's Portuguese name). As such, next to AMEN, it is the most anticipated premiere of this event presented by the Brazilian Alliance Française in eight cities nationwide, including Sao Paulo, Rio and Recife, during September and October.

Miss Béart is Nathalie, a beautiful prostitute hired by a suspicious wife (Ardant) who either wants to find out whether her husband (Depardieu) is cheating, or is a complicated, psychotic voyeur crazy to hear erotic stories about her husband's sex antics, whether true or not.

As I earlier said, the cast seemed extremely promising. And the plot seemed rather exotic, though not groundbreaking. The Parisian locales are fabulous, as are the fashions exhibited by the glamorous cast. But ultimately, the story (and the film) is boring. At the end, we leave the cinema knowing very little about the characters, are not greatly surprised by anything, and gain no new insight into our own lives.

I can understand why the film hasn't been released in France yet, and is being timidly shown in Toronto, and at events like this one. I can't imagine how even the best editor can do anything to fix it. A terrible disappointment. But Béart and Ardant confirm their status as two of the absolutely most glamorous stars of European and World Cinema.

I watched this movie in theaters until 2005 although the movie was released in 2003. I didn't regret because the wait was worth.

I think the plot and events are oriented for a mature audience; specifically for married couples who are passing hard times.

The character of Natalie (or Nathalie X as subtitled here in México) is sexy, intriguing, and somewhat evil. She's a woman that may fool everyone with her lies and poses. Everything in the movie will deal with him as she will play angel and devil at the same time with the couple.

The ending will leave everyone satisfied as it's an unexpected plot twist.

I can recommend this movie for anyone who is looking for intelligent movies with mature situations. Those kind of situations that you may think never happen but that there's a possibility for them to come true...

I've seen this movie on TV some days ago. I knew a little about the plot from some cinema advertisement but had no clue about the end. So I was positively surprised by it. Usually the ménage à trois ends tragically, but here the viewer's imagination may to some extension finish the story individually. I had read bad comments about this movie in the French press and while watching it myself I really wondered what for? Two of France's most popular actresses and a typical French topic is obviously not enough to satisfy the critics nowadays. OK, the descriptions of sex which actually had not taken place at all seem a bit too long and too monotonous in the beginning, but after having seen the complete movie the viewer should have understood the meaning of that this kind of telling about fictional sex only serves to keep Catherine's attention as long as possible. If the stories would have been too good and exiting she might have tried to explore her new insights at once and by this Catherine would have stopped her deal with "Nathalie" too soon. I was most fascinated by the actresses' capability of shaping such a tension concerning their relation ship on the screen. It becomes clear quite soon that there's more in between these two women than just a client-customer deal but you never know who will take the next step. Fanny Ardant's facial expression for desire is legendary, just have a look at her in "Eight women". If there's somebody who knows to seduce convincingly on the screen, it's her. This movie may have been designed more for TV-broadcasting than in cinemas, but it's a nice piece of erotic entertainment.

The cast of this film includes French heavyweights Gerard Depardieu, Emmanuelle Beart and Fanny Ardant. That's like getting Tom Hanks, Gwyneth Paltrow and Joan Allen in the same movie.

I'm American but my girlfriend is French so I'm used to watching French movies. What I like about "Nathalie" versus an American equivalent like Adrian Lyne's "Unfaithful" (which itself was a remake of an older French original called "La femme infidele") is that there is no gloss, no silly special effects, just real drama and natural acting.

I don't usually like Depardieu simply because he's in every other French movie that comes out here in France, but I wasn't disappointed with him in this one. He played the part to a T.

Emmanuelle Beart, who is possibly the most beautiful living French actress, brings depth to her character. She doesn't overdo the part at all and she plays it with such coolness and sophistication. The best performance though would have to be Fanny Ardant's. Hers was the most subtle. I also like the fact that she works as a gynecologist in this movie, because later on, you'll see the connection this has in the plot, which the director brilliantly ties together.

My girlfriend claims she already predicted the twist ending, but I admit I didn't see it coming. I'm not so sure it has an obvious moral but I would say that it is a great commentary on appearances, manipulation in relationships and the unspoken arrangement couples have with each other. I definitely recommend this rare mature movie.

Far more adult than its UK 15 certificate would suggest, this is a sophisticated sex drama that only the French care to make (could make?). It doesn't speed off anywhere, is less than stunning but a constant surprise and delight. Depardieu is Depardieu but Emmanuelle Beart on top form and if she looks a little hard in the nightclub scenes, quite stunning elsewhere. Top performance is that of Fanny Ardant around whom the whole film revolves and she does a sterling job, convincing at all times in a very difficult role. No full frontal nudity but very frank descriptions of sexual acts make this both a sexy and disturbing drama. Well shot with much effective contrast between the generous amounts of Paris street scenes, modest interiors and the sparkling nightlife. Music ranging from Leonard Cohen to dance, through Michael Nyman is also most effective and all goes to help make what is really a most slender story, so captivating.

The wife (Fanny Ardant) thinks her husband (Gérard Depardieu) is cheating and therefore hires a prostitute (Emmanuelle Béart) to seduce the husband and tell the wife about it. We don't really understand why. Is it masochism or something else, it's not much to care about really.

The three main actors all go on their routine, but Depardieu has lost 30 kilos since his last movie. There is no heavy passion, no heavy intellectualism either and the only character who is of some interest and some complexity is the prostitute. But the "surprise" in the end is no real surprise.

Another Paris movie about a stiff bourgeoisie feeling bad. We've seen it before.

Although you should never really judge a film by its poster/DVD cover, it's hard not to when the poster in question has Emmanuelle Beart looking very saucy and beautiful indeed. The film centres around a failing marriage, mainly from the wife's perspective as she hires a prostitute for her husband and get the low down on his filthy little sexual fantasies. Despite this sordid little set up the film is charmingly refrains itself from gratuitous erotic scenes by only having descriptions of the acts that go on. This results in a very 'talky' film, but still a very steamy and effective one. Ardant leads the film, and manages to give an effective performance as a rejected wife in a passionless marriage, although at some points during the film the audience is left to contemplate her motives, and what exactly she is hoping to achieve from this experiment. Beart, is the real star, not only because she is stunning and makes it impossible to look away from the film, but she also offers a complex character, who is creating a complex character for herself within the film. At times she seems strong and in charge, and sometimes she comes across as weak and insecure. The slow and subtle way the bizarre friendship between the two leads evolves is well handled by director Anne Fontaine. The slow pace of the film is also a delight as it perfectly presents the flow of the marriage itself. Gerard Depardieu isn't used enough, we never get to know the character, and characters opinions contradict what we see of him. However since the film is told from the wife's perspective, this is understandable. Paris is represented with the usual busy streets and coffee shops with small apartments, but this is certainly not a film about locale. Overall the film is a joy to look at, and very well made. An underrated gem to sit down with on a quiet afternoon.

Remade by Atom Egoyan as "Chloe" with Julianne Moore and Liam Neeson in the Fanny Ardant and Gerard Depardieu roles and minxy little Amanda Seyfried in the Emmanuelle Beart part, "Nathalie" is a very French tale of amour fou. It's a thriller of sorts, though the thrills tend to be of the erotic and psychological kind rather than the more hands-on approach we might expect from something...well, less French while the material feels overly familiar even if you haven't seen the remake. Fundamentally it's a woman's picture; the director is Anne Fontaine but she doesn't make the material exciting. Ardant is so glacial it's no wonder Depardieu strays and Depardieu is such an unsmilingly drab slab of meat it's surprising he gets as much sex as he claims to. Only Beart livens up proceedings as the pert little hooker Ardant hires to seduce hubbie Depardieu in revenge for a casual fling.

Nathalie is most marked by silence and waiting. The husband does not talk about his extra marital dealings with his wife, and she does not ask about his. Neither of them speak to Nathalie about the truth of the relationship. I find this contrast to the 'let it all hang out' philosophy of marriage to be refreshing. There are many moral questions raised in this film; is 'talking it out' a good idea when the partners have been married this long, and will it change anything? Who is Nathalie's real customer? What would have happened if the husband and wife had had a row; would the husband have stayed until the end, when everything was revealed? These are good questions, not often dealt with; but the French seem to love having a go at them. Emmanuelle is well chosen as she does a lot of looking pensive, and her face is good for that: Fanny also stares a lot into the middle distance, and her bone structure is good for the late-forties woman she portrays; Depardieu is just such a nice guy underneath his philandery that you can almost believe he loves his wife and will wait to have her back. I liked the film. I like films that make one think.

Fanny Ardent stars as a wronged wife who handles her husband's infidelity very differently than you'd expect. She's married to Gérard Depardieu, and when she hears an incriminating voicemail on his cell phone, she confronts him and he admits he occasionally cheats. Fanny approaches a prostitute, Emmanuelle Béart, and pays her to approach her husband to see how he'll react. She's only paid to go to a particular coffee shop and ask Gérard to light her cigarette, but when Fanny asks for a full report, Emmanuelle tells her their interaction went much farther than the coffee shop.

Obviously, with information like that, and while keeping the entire situation a secret from her husband, Fanny's bound to go a little nuts. She becomes obsessed with learning every single detail about every single encounter. Every time she visits Emmanuelle, she's enthralled with graphic recounts of her husband's affair, but she doesn't confront him again. It's a very odd affair, since he's keeping it from her, and she's keeping it from him. There are tons of questions that start to appear in audiences' minds, like why does Fanny like hearing about it? Is Emmanuelle starting to fall for Gérard? There are some other questions you'll think of, but I won't spoil any plot points by listing them.

'Nathalie...' was very entertaining, and it was a very interesting take on infidelity. Pick this one for your next girls' night, if you like your movies a bit on the naughty side.

In "L'enfer" (1964, Henri Georges Clouzot & 1994, Claude Chabrol) a man suspects his wife of infidelity. Women can have the same suspicion, but there weapons are definitely different. The suspicious wife hires a prostitute to test her husband. In 2009 Atom Egoyan did a remake with "Chloe".

A year earlier the female lead actors Fanny Ardant and Emmanuelle Beart met in "Huit femmes" (Francois Ozon). Personally I liked that film better. "Nathalie" takes itself too seriously. On top of that Nathalie (played by Ammanuelle Béart) is portrayed too much as a caricatured prostitute with too much make up and greasy hair.

(Much) later director Anne Fontaine would make more interesting films such as "Les innocentes" (2016) and "Bolero" (2024).

I must confess that I will watch anything with Emmanuelle Beart in it. Her first role of note was in Manon of the Spring as a shepherdess. A great movie featuring the young and beautiful Beart bathing nude at a spring. Here she is Nathalie, a prostitute hired by a woman to pose as a college student and seduce her philandering husband. The wife, Catherine(Fanny Ardent) hears a phone message from a girl sounding a bit to friendly to her man, Bernard(Gerard Depardieu).

She pays Nathalie for the hook up and then meets with her after each encounter and has her describe in graphic detail, what Bernard did. Catherine is a cold woman who seems to get off in a voyeuristic way while listening to the sexual play by play of Nathalie and her soul mate. It is all very strange but Depardieu and Beart make it worthwhile as an interesting curiosity.

In Paris, the executive Bernard (Gérard Depardieu) and his wife, the gynecologist Catherine (Fanny Ardant), form a bored upper class middle aged bourgeois couple. They have been married for many years and their life does not have sexual desire anymore. One day, Catherine listens to the message box of his cell phone and she believes Bernard is unfaithful to her. Catherine hires the beautiful prostitute Marlene (Emmanuelle Béart) to pretend to be a young woman called Nathalie, seduce and investigate the sex life of Bernard and report to her his secrets and performance between walls. Catherine discloses a surprising revelation in the end.

I saw the used DVD of "Nathalie…" on sale in a rental, and based on the names of Emmanuelle Béart, Gérard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant, I decided to risky and buy and watch this movie without any previous reference. I found a great movie, with a very credible story, but for mature audiences only. I believe that only the public of a certain age, who have experienced marriage, will fully understand the characters of Bernard and Catherine, their motives and how true the story is. I was also impressed with the elegance of the great French actress Fanny Ardant and with the eternal beauty of the sexy and also great actress Emmanuelle Béart. The direction of Anne Fontaine is very sensitive, delicate and classy, keeping the story in a very high level, without using any type of subterfuge, such as spicy scene or sexual exposition of the cast. The soundtrack is also excellent. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Nathalie X"

Note: On 03 July 2011, I saw this film again to compare with the weak remake "Chloe".

The other night I watched two films, Michel Deville's Le Voyage en Douce (1980) and Anne Fontaine's Nathalie (2003). It was a felicitous, though accidental, pairing. Both films negotiate the complex, often hazardous subject of eroticism between women, straight women. In such films, the pairing of the actresses is absolutely crucial, and in this respect, Fontaine was more fortunate than Deville. In Nathalie, Fanny Ardant and Emmanuelle Béart have what Fontaine called a profound alchemy. The film veritably sizzles from the first encounter of the two women in a brothel to the final affirmation of their friendship.

Nathalie's plot line is rather cheesy – a woman (Ardant) finds out her husband (Gerard Depardieu in a beautifully muted role) is cheating on her. She hires a prostitute (Béart) to seduce her husband and after wards to relate every detail of their encounters to her. The hooker, Marlène, whom the wife renames Nathalie, accepts. And thus begins the film's depiction of sex by proxy. Nathalie's descriptions of sex with the husband reminded me of the superbly erotic scene in Bergman's Persona when the nurse relates her seduction of a boy on the beach. And as with Persona, this film heavily depends for its force on the subtleties and shadings in the acting of the three principals.

As always, Ardant commands our full attention. Her Catherine is beautiful, elegantly at ease, aloof. Béart's Nathalie is a kind of counterforce to Catherine. Her long sluttish blonde hair falls over her bruised blue eyes, both to conceal and to allow her a wary sideways glance at the world. She is tough and watchful, rarely does she smile. But as the story progresses, a startled softness in her eyes begins to submerge the cold indifference of the professional.

The first encounter between the two women sets the tone: in a garishly crimson bar of a Paris brothel, a somewhat apprehensive Catherine sits bolt upright on a leather sofa, looking decidedly out of place. When Marlène approaches her, Catherine is relieved and grateful. Marlène, for her part, is assured and even gentle with Catherine, though she doesn't quite know what to make of her. She knows how to talk to johns, but an elegant, educated woman is of a different order of magnitude. Catherine soon relaxes into a confiding, pleasurable intrigue with the hooker, and the bargain is struck. The erotic undercurrent is palpable.

It was the premise of this "dirty" little story that caught my eye: a wife engages a prostitute to rekindle the sexual desires of her unfaithful husband. For herself. Yes: the wife (Fanny Ardant) actually employees the prostitute (Emmanuelle Beart) to give the husband (Gerard Depardieu) a really good time, all the while without him realizing that his wife is paying for it. Her hope is that, once his sexual frustrations are worked out, he'll stop his philandering and return to her loving arms...

Want to bet on her chances?

An odd story, to say the least, so I just had to watch it. Then I found out it turned into something else: a real love story. Or, perhaps -- what we all think passes for love, in marriage? Hence, slowly and inexorably, the protagonists strip away the rites of married life, exposing the hypocrisy, innuendo, and outright lies that force people to continue in a sterile relationship.

Very French, very bawdy – in a wordy sense – and very introspective: Lots of long searching looks, sparse dialog, mood swings, tawdry night clubs, and conversations (when they occur) about the finer details of having sex.

Depardieu provides an excellent image of a man at a loss – at work and in his marriage, and he's not at all sure why; Ardant (an actress I'd not seen much of until this outing) underplays the aggrieved wife with what appears to be a stoic calm but which is actually calculated indifference; and the very luminous Beart is perfect as the avaricious pro ready to make a few too many francs at the expense of the wife's dignity. I hadn't seen Beart in a movie since Manon des Sources (1986), in her role as the vengeful daughter of Jean de Florette; she ages well, no question...

As I implied above, however, all is not what it seems to be, especially when it comes to relationships. There is an exquisite twist (a careful viewer will spot the clues that point directly to the twist) to the story that forces the wife to face the reality of her marriage and thus make a choice. And the viewer is left with two questions: was it all worth the expense? And, did she make the right choice?

If you like these French actors, and French movies in general, I thoroughly recommend this one. Not for kiddies or even teenagers, though.

Despite a top-drawer cast and a top-flight writer-director this one flopped in France. Something is seriously weird over there; last year Depardieu, Adjani, Ledoyen, PLUS Jean-Paul Rappeneau (Cyrano de Bergerac) failed with 'Bon Voyage'; THIS year Depardieu, Fanny Ardant, Manu Beart PLUS Ann Fontaine (Comment j'ai tue mon pere, Nettoyage a sec)bombed with Nathalie. I've already covered Bon Voyage in these pages, having seen it three times and been blown away each time, but I just missed Nathalie when it was released in Paris in January of this year and I missed it again in April by which time it was reduced to one performance a week in a suburban art house, but now it's arrived in London and guess who was there with bells on at the very first screening. The English press seem disappointed rather than dismissive, on the grounds that the storyline - wife, worried about husband's fidelity, hires a hooker to seduce him and then supply a blow-by-blow, you should forgive the expression, to said wife - is meat and drink to the French so how could they produce a souffle that failed to rise to the occasion. They also claim you can see the twist coming a mile away and all I can say to THAT is that I was too busy basking in Fanny Ardant's eye-acting to spot the clues, such as they were. Put three heavy hitters like Depardieu, Ardant and Beart together in one movie and SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE is gonna think he's died and gone to heaven however less-than-perfect the script and this one is only a TAD less than perfect. Though hardly needed there is also first rate support from veterans Wladamir Yordanoff and Judith Magre, now, incredibly in her 78th year and looking no more than fifty. Of the three Depardieu has the least to do but as always he does it so well it feels like he is carrying the thing. Beart is the weakest link but she is always going to have problems with that incredibly unbelievable beauty that makes her look more like a genuine Stepford Wife than a REAL flesh-and-blood person. If ever a face needed not a whit or a jot of make up it is Beart's and it is sick-making to see it grotesqued up so ineptly with Hooker #7 lipstick and eye shadow. The movie belongs to Ardant and she takes it effortlessly giving what amounts to a Master-Class in eye-acting and if you haven't seen that gorgeous, Ava Gardner look-alike face in repose while the eyes reveal the pain behind them you haven't lived. Okay, the clues WERE there and I missed them but I sure don't feel either cheated or a klutz because for one hundred and seven minutes I was in the presence of greatness. 8/10

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