CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

gavin6942 The former famous painter Frenhofer (Michel Piccoli) revisits an abandoned project using the girlfriend (Emmanuelle Béart) of a young visiting artist. Questions about truth, life, and artistic limits are explored.The film is loosely adapted from the short story "The Unknown Masterpiece" by Honoré de Balzac and also includes elements from "The Liar", "The Figure in the Carpet", and "The Aspern Papers" by Henry James. One does not need to have read any of these works to appreciate the film, however.Some critics say the film is like watching paint dry, because very little happens and it has a running time of over four hours! But, at the same time ,this is sort of its charm. It just goes slow, unfolding, and getting the job done. Is the story of the artist or the model? Do they grow together, or grow apart?

kenjha A retired painter picks up his brush after meeting a woman that he wants as his model for an elusive masterpiece. This film is literally like watching paint dry, as the viewer is subjected to watching a number of portraits being drawn or painted from start to finish. It's interesting to watch the creative process the first couple of times, but becomes somewhat tiresome after a while. There isn't enough material to sustain the extensive length, but the filmmakers deserve credit though for keeping it mostly interesting despite the three-hour running time, although the ending is unsatisfying. There are good performances from Piccoli and Beart.

FilmCriticLalitRao Edouard Frenhofer-a renowned painter left his supreme creation "La Belle Noiseuse" unfinished for ten years.His wife Liz modeled for it.He receives Porbus-an art agent and a young ambitious painter Nicolas in his château in the south of France.Porbus convinces him to complete the painting with a fresh model Marianne.This leads to an emotional turmoil between Frenhofer,Liz and Marianne.Jacques Rivette has created films which are fascinating examples of human emotions.As an avant-garde filmmaker,he relies heavily on literary texts.The film is a loose adaptation of Honore de Balzac's short story "The Unknown Masterpiece".La Belle Noiseuse is an honest film about creativity and its implications on our daily lives.It is true that Rivette took 4 hours of screen time in order to get to the bottom of his protagonists' emotional turmoil yet the wait is worth it as it is too small a price to pay.La Belle Noiseuse demands active participation on audience's part as Rivette makes us examine all aspects of creative art.Frenhofer,through his art attempts to make us comprehend basic human weakness felt by an artist.He dropped the idea of La Belle Noiseuse as he was scared and had not set foot in his atelier for a long time.The four-hour La Belle noiseuse was also released in 1993 in a two-hour version,entitled Divertimento as France 3 felt that a shorter version would be easy for everyone to grasp.The 4 hour film will certainly prove to be a nerve wrecking cinematic encounter for laid-back viewers who are not used to Rivette's protracted style of film-making.

tFighterPilot I really like the nude scene in this film, so I thought, why not watching the whole film. Well, I almost did, but ended up shutting off the TV about one and half hours after it started. In the first hour of the movie you see people talk what seem like small talks. In the next 20 minutes you see that artist guy drawing. Then she finally gets undressed, making the movie not any more interesting. Still small talks. Still watching paint dry. Days of Our Lives has faster pace. Most of the people here who gave it a high score did it to look smart. I don't see how enduring 4 hours of watching small talks, paint dry and tasteful nudity (yes, that gets boring as well) makes a person smart. So like the kid who yelled "the king is naked" I'll say "the movie is boring".