cokramer Exquisite movie. Sautet's a director who builds up his films moment by moment without you realizing the full extent of the feelings involved, usually until the very end. And he doesn't do it with the typical Hollywood flash. He allows you to realize things yourself. This movie of his is no exception. Sautet, through his characters and his directorial realization of the scripted story, is someone who sees above the pettiness of the everyday world.If you haven't genuine love and understanding in your life, you have something considerably less. Late in his life, Monsieur Arnaud, one of the title characters, finally gets it and through his relationship with Nelly (and others) allow us, the audience, to do so also, definitely by the end of this story. 4 aces, five stars, 10 votes, whatever, this is a must-see, especially for Sautet fans who've seen and like his other works.

George Parker "Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud" is all about a beautiful Parisian working woman (Emmanuelle Béart) and the men in her life. Suffering from marital ennui Nelly estranges herself from her husband and takes a job typing memoirs for an older Monsieur Arnaud as he dictates to her in his drawing room. During the course of the film we see a handful of miscellaneous characters come and go while Nelly has dinner, types, goes to a party, types, takes a swim, types, an does many more very mundane things. I was extremely disappointed in this film given its fine cast and excellent pedigree. An unfortunate drone of inconsequential busyness which ends abruptly and offers no reason for audience interest save sheer voyeurism, this film makes Nelly out to be a person without a single interesting thought in her lovely head. All in all, "Nelly and Monsieur" plays out like a whole lot of very nicely done nothingness. (C+)

writers_reign When you gotta go you gotta go and if Claude Sautet had to go he certainly went in style. He gave us some of the finest and most durable films in late 20th century French cinema - Vincent, Francois, Paul et les Autres, En Cour en Hiver and so many more, films we can watch again and again with renewed pleasure and he signed off with a doozy. It is, of course, a cliché that only the French know how to handle the man-woman relationship in all its nuances, unorthodoxy, etc, but one worth repeating. Its all too easy to imagine the clumsiness with which modern English/US directors would have handled the older man/younger woman situation that lies at the heart of this story but I'm ready to bet plenty of twelve-to-seven that none would have brought the delicacy of touch, subtlety that is synonymous with Sautet. When we talk of a 'mood' piece we think of Chekhov and Sautet invokes the Russian master in spinning out of thin air a fragile, gossamer-thin tacit understanding between his two leads. Beart is almost too impossibly beautiful to be true and she needs to be the fine actress she is to get past the handicap of classical features while Serrault is a consummate actor still turning out great performances. A word too about the support, Michele Laroque, a stand-up comedienne in her spare time, brings the same solid support here as she did later in Francis Veber's 'Le Placard'. I can pay this movie no higher compliment than to bracket it with 'Brief Encounter', another masterpiece of unconsummated love that is still enchanting audiences fifty years on, as Nelly and Mr. Arnaud surely will be.

trpdean This is worth seeing if you have the patience for a movie without much plot - just unexpressed feelings that lie beneath the surface. I truly think most will feel "Huh? What's supposed to be happening? NOTHING is happening here! When the hell does this thing get going?" and yet I can understand that some will be moved.In truth, things do happen but since you never see anyone (particularly Beart as the lead character, "Nelly") express emotion, it's very very dry. *** Spoilers***The portrayal of Beart informing her husband of many years that she is leaving him, seems not to be happening between human beings. There is SO little shown, SO little said. "Ah, oui?" is about it. This is difficult to watch - I'm sure many will see "ah, but what lies underneath, what extraordinary history is revealed by th flicker of their eyelashes", but I like to see drama expressed.The same occurs when her boyfriend merely mentions a new apartment he has looked at. It only dawns later that the fact that the home contains three rooms is meant to convey to the audience a request that she (after a mere month or two of dating) move in with him. When she says she likes the current situation, he says they can no longer see each other. No emotions shown - she leaves. The scene has all the emotional trauma of a DEVO performance.*** Yet all that said, the characters themselves are people I'd like to have known better. Put a plot together and this would be an interesting movie. As it is, it's quite boring.