A film dramatically uncovering the process of creating art, in particular nude portrait painting. Set in rural France, Nicholas and girlfriend Marianne (Emmanuelle Beart) are affected by a visit to a local artist’s stone mansion. The artist is a former famous painter Frenhofer (Michel Piccoli) who lives with his wife (Jane Birkin). Frenhofer wants Marianne to model for him and Nicholas, also an artist, pushes her to do it. A long film in two parts, director Jacques Rivette shows the development and challenges to the artist and his muse. Tension and soul searching evolves as an outcome of the creative process and painting technique is shown for each work (based on paintings by Bernard Dufour). Based on a book by Honore De Balzac. Winner of the Grand Prix at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.
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Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
319061
Languages
English
French
French
Audience classification
M (15+)
Subject categories
Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Foreign language films
Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Nudity
Communications, Infrastructure, & Transport → Thought and thinking
Crafts & Visual Arts → Artists
Crafts & Visual Arts → Models, Artists'
Crafts & Visual Arts → Nude in art
Crafts & Visual Arts → Painting
Crafts & Visual Arts → Painting - Technique
Crafts & Visual Arts → Portrait painting
Education, Instruction, Teaching & Schools → Creative ability
Education, Instruction, Teaching & Schools → Thought and thinking
Family, Gender Identity, Relationships & Sexuality → Nudity
Family, Gender Identity, Relationships & Sexuality → Relationships
Feature films → Feature films - France
Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Identity (Psychology)
Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Thought and thinking
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Colour
Holdings
DVD; Access Print (Section 1)