Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud - Tuesday 23rd July 2024

Writing this in February 2025, I’m struggling to remember what this film was actually about?! I remember being slightly disappointed. I was hoping for an experience similar to ‘A Heart in Winter’, and got nothing of the sort from this film.

Is it bad? Not at all. It’s just a very French experience, in that you’re observing characters who go about their lives not doing very much (I say this is a French experience because, if you got to Paris, you’ll notice that all the cafés have their outdoor seats facing outwards, so customers can look at passers-by and the public in general. Watching people do nothing seems very French to me).

That said, if you were to watch one person go about their life not doing very much, you’d probably choose Emmanuelle Béart. She’s just exquisite to look at, and that’s part of the trick of the filmmaker; Monsieur Arnaud is basically a proxy for the audience, finding any excuse to have Nelly hang around.
Still, beautiful women a good film do not make, otherwise plenty of X-rated websites on the internet would be famed for other reasons!
I enjoyed it, but I did find it lacking; the comparison to A Heart in Winter is inevitable and perhaps does this film a disservice. However, I know which of the two I will be returning to!