Rating: 
Summary: Love and intimacy for all the right reasons
Review: "Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud" is a profound and enriching drama about love, independence, sharing, and separation. It follows a beautiful young woman on the point of separating from her depressed and non-working spouse. She encounters a rich and perceptive older man who offers her a job transcribing his memoirs. Though he emphatically tells her that he wants nothing from her, they grow to love and depend on each other in a non-sexual relationship that brightens their lives. There are many types of sharing and intimacy and the plot takes them both through friends and personal contacts that mean a lot to them, but do not direct their lives. This is an intelligent and rich portrait of human intimacy.
Rating:
Summary: Understatement at its best
Review: A gentle movie that explores a complex relationship. Understatement at its best.Nelly, played by the beautiful Emmanuelle Beart, is at crossroads of her life -- disillusioned with marital problems and aimless about future. She meets Arnaud, played by Michel Serrault, -- a gentleman, retired judge and businessman, wife separated -- at a cafe through a common friend. He helps her to overcome her debts and she in turn helps him to type his memoirs. Thus their interaction begins. Arnaud is infatuated by her beauty and personality (who wouldn't be?), but he is helpless in expressing that for the fact that he is of more than double-the-age of Nelly. She too is in love with the sophisticated, mature Arnaud but for the same reason as his, she is unable to accept it. She finds that her heart longs for Arnaud when she automatically rejects a live-in relationship proposed by a publisher-friend with whom she was dating and was happy. They try to be and feel that they are happy together, all the time knowing that a complete and defined relationship is impossible. Both of them are tormented by their love for each other. Is it love in the romantic sense? May not be. There is an emotional vacuum in both their lives. And they fill each other very well. She needs someone mature enough to steady her drifting, aimless life and he needs someone to illuminate his dull, boring life. It is not lust. It is not romance. It is not friendship. It is not concern. It is not finding solace. Or is it lust? Is it romance? Is it friendship? Is it concern? Is it finding solace? Frankly, I am at loss trying to comprehend the nature, complexity, depth and layers of their relationship. They know how much each one meant for the other at the time of their parting, when Arnaud's ex-wife takes him for a global tour. Arnaud, collected and withdrawn till then, embraces her passionately. Nelly, composed and passive till then, is shaken and devastated. They know it is coming to an end. The film ends with Arnaud thinking of her and Nelly trying to cope up with her daily life. I hate the ending as much as I love it. Perhaps, it was the appropriate ending. Not all relationships in life are complete; some end abruptly, some never ends. Beart and Serrault are magnificent. I am amazed by her ability to bring about a variety of emotions with subtle facial expressions and effortless motion.
Rating: 
Summary: Subtitles Cut off on Widescreen TV?
Review: Can anyone confirm that the 2nd line of subtitles are cut off the bottom of the screen when played on a widescreen tv? I began watching the film on my Sony 46" Widescreen and anytime a 2nd line of subtitles appeared on the screen I could only see the top of the words barely. I tried on another DVD player and it was the same. I tried all settings, (Full, Zoom, Wide-zoom, Normal) and all 4 cut the subtitles off. I ended up watching it on my 4X3 Sony 36" TV and I could read the subtitles. Anyway, good movie, just wish I could watch it on my Widescreen.
Rating:
Summary: Subtitles Cut off on Widescreen TV?
Review: Can anyone confirm that the 2nd line of subtitles are cut off the bottom of the screen when played on a widescreen tv? I began watching the film on my Sony 46" Widescreen and anytime a 2nd line of subtitles appeared on the screen I could only see the top of the words barely. I tried on another DVD player and it was the same. I tried all settings, (Full, Zoom, Wide-zoom, Normal) and all 4 cut the subtitles off. I ended up watching it on my 4X3 Sony 36" TV and I could read the subtitles. Anyway, good movie, just wish I could watch it on my Widescreen.
Rating:
Summary: Subtitles Cut off on Widescreen TV?
Review: Can anyone confirm that the 2nd line of subtitles are cut off the bottom of the screen when played on a widescreen tv? I began watching the film on my Sony 46" Widescreen and anytime a 2nd line of subtitles appeared on the screen I could only see the top of the words barely. I tried on another DVD player and it was the same. I tried all settings, (Full, Zoom, Wide-zoom, Normal) and all 4 cut the subtitles off. I ended up watching it on my 4X3 Sony 36" TV and I could read the subtitles. Anyway, good movie, just wish I could watch it on my Widescreen.
Rating: 
Summary: Lovely French Film About May-December Relationship
Review: Claude Saute directs another lovely nuanced film about relationships between men and women. Anyone who is intrigued by relations between older men and younger women will be instantly attracted to this film. Emmanuelle Béart as Nelly is gorgeous, as usual, and does a fine job as the May part of the relationship. Michel Serrault, a top actor for decades, gives us many layers as the older man, a married judge. The two do not have an affair, which probably makes the film more complex and unusual than if they did. However, I'm also reminded of Béart in "Un Couer en Hiver" ("A Heart in Winter") and that film so thoroughly mesmerized me, and was so absolutely a 5 star film, that I just can't say this one is that excellent. This is well worth viewing but once was enough for me. I had to see "Un Couer en Hiver" several times, the acid test for me for 5 star films.
Rating:
Summary: Lovely French Film About May-December Relationship
Review: Claude Saute directs another lovely nuanced film about relationships between men and women. Anyone who is intrigued by relations between older men and younger women will be instantly attracted to this film. Emmanuelle Béart as Nelly is gorgeous, as usual, and does a fine job as the May part of the relationship. Michel Serrault, a top actor for decades, gives us many layers as the older man, a married judge. The two do not have an affair, which probably makes the film more complex and unusual than if they did. However, I'm also reminded of Béart in "Un Couer en Hiver" ("A Heart in Winter") and that film so thoroughly mesmerized me, and was so absolutely a 5 star film, that I just can't say this one is that excellent. This is well worth viewing but once was enough for me. I had to see "Un Couer en Hiver" several times, the acid test for me for 5 star films.
Rating:
Summary: Stellar Characters
Review: Claude Sautet delivers interesting characters in all his movies and this work is his best. Beart is stunning as a lonely women who leaves her coach-potato husband and then finds work and friendship w/ Mr. Arnoux, a retired judge. She helps him write his memoirs and puts "wind in his sails." Any love felt between Nelly and Mr. Arnaux sneaks up on you and leads to a bittersweet conclusion. This movie gets better each time you watch it.
Rating:
Summary: Stellar Characters
Review: Claude Sautet delivers interesting characters in all his movies and this work is his best. Beart is stunning as a lonely women who leaves her coach-potato husband and then finds work and friendship w/ Mr. Arnoux, a retired judge. She helps him write his memoirs and puts "wind in his sails." Any love felt between Nelly and Mr. Arnaux sneaks up on you and leads to a bittersweet conclusion. This movie gets better each time you watch it.
Rating:
Summary: Intelectually rewarding, but emotionally underwhelming
Review: Claude Sautet Nelly and Mr.Arnaud is a sumptous film to look at. Every frame in this film has bright and varied colors that look like pictures from an interior decorating magazine. It is at its most complling in its early scenes between Nelly and Mr.Arnaud, he is somewhat overbearing in his need to start conversation, or perhaps confess to past short comings. Yet he never beats around the bush so to speak because as one character in the film observes abot him "He has lived two lives." Emmanuelle Beart who is wonderful in this movie(and wonderful to look at) is quiet, observant and in an offhand way suggest a deep intelligence behind these eyes. She constantly handles herself in an relaxed manner, and only in the end when she learns of Mr.Arnauds leaving that she is slighly shaken. She like Mr.Arnaud has been through enough of life to have an understated reaction to what goes on around her. The film is best enjoyed on a quiet lonely afternoon where you can savour its decor and the almost to subtle character revelations. The trouble is that its almost too understated emotionally, the only music on the score that I recall is in the final minute. The characters are too seasoned for us to enjoy their self discovery. Perhaps the American equivelant of this film would be Martin Brest's Scent of A Woman, both feature the regretfull confessions of an older man to a seemingly distracted youthful companion. And although this film is more subtle, I was dying for the emotional release, the operatic splendor of that film. Nelly and Mr.Arnaud is intellectually satisfying but emotionally underwhelming. I'll have Pacino's wonderfull hysterics over it anyday of the week.
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