La Belle Noiseuse

1991

3 hr. 58 min.

Drama

List

100%

28 Reviews

Tomatometer

82%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

A young model (Emmanuelle Béart) replacing his wife (Jane Birkin) inspires a tired painter (Michel Piccoli) to pick up a work he quit 10 years before.

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Critics Consensus

A sensual and hypnotic masterpiece, La Belle Noiseuse luxuriates in its four-hour run time while holding audience attention.

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Nawt W

One-dimensional portrayal of jealousy expressed by supposed adults with a mental capacity of kindergarten inhabitants, whose entire years-long relationships ostensibly crumble at a foundation in a span of hours because, my dears, art is a window into the soul, and to capture that window we need sacrifices.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

12/24/23

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Audience Member

For a rainy Sunday morning. Would have been a more fulfilling, effective, and honest film if you got to actually see the final painting, but alas, that reveal never comes.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

07/24/23

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Tic Toc M

This movie is not for everybody. If you're not an artist, or interested in the artist's process, I wouldn't touch this movie with a ten foot pole. If you are an artist, you may (or may not) like this. It is four hours.......and this movie is basically about a guy trying to make a painting. Stroke by excruciating stroke. His model (Emmanuelle Beart) spends much of the movie bored out of her mind as he works, and you might be as well. That said: I watched the entire four hour movie in one sitting, which is pretty shocking for me. Days later, it's still in my mind. Excellent acting. Beart's performance is particularly impeccable.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

05/22/23

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s r

1001 movies to see before you die. Rather tedious and I understand that that is part of the point. However, I am not sure if it was worth it, to see the portrait of a waning artist. It shows in detail the artistic process and what it takes to for inspiration and vision. All in all, I have never seen a movie like it, but does that make it one of the 1001? It was on Tubi.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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William L

Let's put the pain back in painting. One of seemingly few films of excessive runtime that really knows how to wield it, La Belle Noiseuse is focused on exploring the 'brewing' behind its objective plot, rather than the events in and of themselves. The development of the relationship between Piccoli's reclusive artist Frenhofer and his new muse, Béart's Marianne, is told through small spur of the moment reactions that build up to larger revelations, against a backdrop of torrid relationships, artistic expression, and repressed emotion, all accompanied by a chorus of scratching fountain pens. One of the great aspects of the film is the willingness to blur the lines between genuine artistry and pretension. Upon their introductions, both Frenhofer and Bursztein's Nicolas are spouting off various pseudo-profound ruminations about insight from expression, etc., each for different reasons - Nicolas to pretend that he belongs in this clique of the enlightened, and Frenhofer that he still has passion and insight that he has been without for some time. However, as time passes, their posing begins to fade into a few choice moments of true expression with the advent of romantic strife and personal insight. Both a film about creativity and aging, new and old love, Rivette creates a beautiful film that does not feel nearly as long in practice as its runtime would suggest; one of the latest truly great films from any notable director of the French New Wave. (4.5/5)

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

07/17/21

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Audience Member

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Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/23/23

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Jacques Rivette

Director

Michel Piccoli

Edouard Frenhofer

Emmanuelle Béart

Marianne

Jane Birkin

Liz

Marianne Denicourt

Julienne

David Bursztein

Nicolas

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Chris Vognar

Dallas Morning News

La Belle Noiseuse will immerse you in a one-of-a-kind portrait of the artistic process.

Jun 14, 2018

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Michael Atkinson

Village Voice

In its own way this sensual, granular experience is just as pure and obsessive as Rivette's less hospitable masterpieces, and almost as mysterious.

Nov 28, 2017

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Owen Gleiberman

Entertainment Weekly

Rated: B

Sep 7, 2011

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Laura Clifford

Reeling Reviews

This is a movie about the making of a masterpiece which is itself a masterpiece, one of the truly great movies about artistic creation.

Rated: A

May 2, 2018

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Budd Wilkins

Film Journal International

Jacques Rivette's magisterial portrait of the creative process lays bare an artist's conflicted responsibilities toward life and art.

Nov 27, 2017

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Andy Crump

The Playlist

Long takes, slow zooms, and deep focus give 'La Belle Noiseuse' a sense of disciplined stillness, all the better to record the meticulous efforts of its two chief subjects as they make art out of life.

Rated: A-

Nov 23, 2017

Full Review

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Synopsis

A young model (Emmanuelle Béart) replacing his wife (Jane Birkin) inspires a tired painter (Michel Piccoli) to pick up a work he quit 10 years before.

Director: Jacques Rivette
Genre: Drama
Original Language: French (France)
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Nov 24, 2017
Release Date (Streaming): May 2, 2018
Box Office (Gross USA): $8.2K

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