Nathalie X

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!

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".

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

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...).

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.