Nathalie... (MA)

by Anne Fontaine

Anne Fontaine has assembled three of the greatest actors in contemporary French cinema - Emmanuelle Béart, Fanny Ardant and Gérard Depardieu - for this masterful tale of erotic obsession and betrayal.

Bernard (Depardieu) and Catherine (Ardant) are a happily married, professional, middle-aged couple. They are financially stable, have a group of supportive friends, and each feels secure in life. When Bernard misses his surprise birthday party because he is delayed in Frankfurt, his wife is disappointed, but thinks no more of the incident. How could he know she had planned something so special? But when she listens to messages on his cellphone shortly afterward, she discovers he is having an affair behind her back. Coolly, quietly and methodically, she plots her revenge.

Catherine decides to hire a prostitute to seduce her husband: and after awkwardly poking her head into an elegant nightclub, she meets the sultry Nathalie (Beart). As long as she's paid, Nathalie is unconcerned about what she is asked to do. Catherine tells Nathalie how to find her husband - and the plot unwinds.

This is the beginning of a dreamy, mesmerizing and titillating tale in which the relationship between the two women, rather than that of the man and call-girl, becomes central. As Catherine regularly arranges to meet Nathalie to find out how her plan is proceeding, she is drawn into a world that startles and surprises her. This story is told with compassion and sympathy for all three characters, spiced with a series of encounters that unfold in the most unexpected ways. It is enough to say that this trio of great talent rises superbly to Fontaine's sure-handed direction, never releasing us from the mysteries and seduction of love.

France - 2003 - Drama - 100 min - French with English subtitles
Director: Anne Fontaine
Script: Anne Fontaine, Jacques Fieschi, François-Olivier Rousseau, Philippe Blasband
With: Fanny Ardant, Gérard Depardieu, Emmanuelle Béart, Wladimir Yordanoff, Judith Magre, Rodolphe Pauly, Evelyne Dandry
Distributor in Australia: Palace Films