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The Beautiful Troublemaker

La Belle Noiseuse

1991

Jacques Rivette

Michel Piccoli, Emmanuelle Béart, Jane Birkin, Marianne Denicourt ...

7.3

1,526

Drama A renowned painter's ten-year hiatus comes to an end after becoming inspired by a young artist, and in particular the young artist's lover (Beart), who becomes the model for his return to the canvas. It's a slow, methodical exploration into the artistic process and the ensuing obsessions it brings for both artist and model. Rivette's brilliant direction makes this four-hour film a rich and rewarding experience.

	Author	Review
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"It is a four-hour movie, but not one second too long, in which the process of art and the process of life come into a fascinating conflict (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Vincent Canby The New York Times	"The academically romantic nonsense preached by 'La Belle Noiseuse' (...) is balanced by the on-screen evidence of another requirement: hard work over long hours, plus a certain amount of thought"	POS
United States	Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader	"Rivette cunningly keeps shifting the film's emphasis so that sometimes we're immersed in the sketch in progress and other times the work itself becomes a mere backdrop to the emotional state of Marianne."	POS
United States	Keith Uhlich Slant	"It vacillates between genuine insight and didactic mystique-of-the-artist bullshit (…) Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)"	NEU
United Kingdom	David Parkinson Empire	"Very long but compelling arthouse study of very French relationships (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Geoff Andrew Time Out	"Confronting the issue of creativity with honesty and insight (...) [it] is for the most part hypnotically fascinating."	POS
United States	Scott Tobias AV Club	"Masterpiece (...) Rarely has a film dealt so intimately with the complex relationship between artist and subject"	POS

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