Nathalie...

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...

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".

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 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

Would a woman, finding out that her husband has been having casual affairs (which he admits to, but says `they are nothing') hire a prostitute to seduce him and report back to her? I don't know, but maybe it's possible in France, a country which prides itself on the tidy management of sex in general. It does seem a rather bizarre way of putting some zing back into a flagging marriage. Fanny Ardant as the voyeuristic wife Catherine dominates the movie though she spends a lot of time staring off into the middle distance. Gérard Depardieu as Bernard the husband is reduced to a bit player. The most intriguing character is `Nathalie' the prostitute played with innocent charm by Emmanuelle Béart, who, though 38, manages to look 15 years younger. She might have a waif-like manner but she certainly has learned what men are like and what they want, and her accounts of her sessions with the husband seem all too authentic.

Unfortunately I worked out fairly early in the piece what was really going on. I won't spoil it for you dear reader, but it is all a bit anti-climactic. The film does have a genuine Parisian feel to it – crowded apartments (even that of the affluent married couple), bars, streets, restaurants, etc. All that elegant consumption and all that personal lack of fulfillment. It's almost a relief to discover that one of the patients at Catherine's gynaecology practice, though in her early 20s, is still a virgin.

In its favour, the movie does not drag on too long, and has in `Natalie' a genuinely intriguing character. She is not the usual desperate junkie - she is not without resources, and when not being a prostitute works as a hairdresser and beautician. Is she able to have a `normal' relationship with anyone? At one stage the temperature between her and Catherine gets quite warm. Or is she emotionally burnt out by the rigours of the game? Anne Fontaine as director doesn't seem to want to explore her most interesting character so we are left to guess.