La belle noiseuse 1991

Director: Jacques Rivette
Writers: Pascal Bonitzer (scenario), Christine Laurent (scenario) | 4 more credits »
Stars: Michel Piccoli, Jane Birkin, Emmanuelle Béart

While La Belle Noiseuse is on its surface the story of a painter reconnecting with his creative spark after meeting a kind of “new, improved” Muse of sorts, it’s the opening heraldic if stringent array of brass on the soundtrack which instantly sets a fascinating if slightly discordant mood for the film. The perhaps anachronistic score is culled from Igor Stravinsky’s remarkable piece called Agon, a ballet which was choreographed by George Balanchine, but which has maintained a concert life of its own shorn of the dance element, and which offers some intriguing subtext for the film (more about that later). If you’re a fan of etymology, you may already know two words where Agon, which means struggle or contest, shows up — protagonist and antagonist, but kind of interestingly the struggle co-writer and director Jacques Rivette depicts in this long and languorous exploration of creativity doesn’t really involve a villainous type throwing up obstacles for a hero, instead focusing on a more internal struggle as an elderly artist tries to reignite his passion for both life in general and painting in particular. But Stravinsky’s angular, piercing music would seem to be a rather odd counterpoint to what some viewers unused to Rivette’s shall we say unhurried approach to unspooling his story may feel as they wend their way through a film that takes around four hours to unfold. As Richard Suchenski mentions in a commentary included on this two disc set as a supplement, Rivette intentionally loved drawing things out cinematically, convinced that the sheer act (if it can be called an act) of sitting in a theater and watching a film for extended periods of time created its own psychological “reality”, and there’s no disputing the fact that for those willing to surrender to the slow, insistent rhythms of La Belle Noiseuse, the film creates an almost hypnotic allure, even if not that much actually “happens” over the course of its rather long running time. La Belle Noiseuse won the Grand Prix at 1991’s Cannes Festival, and it remains one of the more highly regarded films from Rivette’s career, but it is one of those viewing experiences that may not appeal to everyone, even those accustomed to some of the eccentricities of this particular director or even Art House fare in general.

Please Note: Playback of this H.265/HEVC encoded video file in VLC media player may cause problem (like Green Screen). A fresh install of the player or a new version can solve this problem. I strongly suggest you to download and install “K-Lite Codec Pack (Full or Mega version; totally free with WMP Classic)” on your system first and then try to play the file in VLC. Or, you can just install PotPlayer, and no codecs will be needed. I use this player for playing all sorts of media… from MP3 audio files to 4K UHD video files.

Mac users please get help from the Internet and YouTube as I’ve no option to test this video in a Mac.MS18pp