Review of Divertimento (2000) by Espen N — 25 Apr 2008

This is a film, such as 'Céline et Julie vont en bateau', that insists on the time to explore it's premisses. Both are films directed by Jacques Rivette, and dwell on individuals driven by passion or curiosity to search for a personal awaking.

Both films share durations over 3 hours each, yet I find 'La Belle Noiseuse' less epic and easier to enjoy on many levels. Michel Piccoli's character painter Edouard Frenhofer is a renowned painter whose lifelong passion for art has faded, and in trouble of retirement.

I've read Balzac's novelette 'The Unknown Masterpiece' about Frenhofer, who is hard as a statue, fanatically judgmental, and obsessed with his taken-for-granted rank in society. Piccoli's embodiment of the artist lacks self-righteousness, even though his artistic ego is well placed at all times.

I find him much more reserved, and sincere in Rivette's adaptation. Balzac writes him as a unmarried man, but in the film, Jane Birkin plays the wife Liz, a tender counterpart whose hobby is stuffing dead ducks.

Liz has an almost childlike attitude towards life. Her calm and sometimes nervous whispers to her guests is as touching as they tell a lot about her gratitude of talking to someone else than her husband.

Jacques Rivette lets his actors take the time to live in the moment, which brings me to Emmanuelle Béart's character Marianne, who fits the description of Frenhofer's painting, as well as the film's english title 'The Beautiful Troublemaker', from head to toe.

It is exhilarating to watch her stubbornness, confidence and restlessness play parallels with Frenhofer, who is magically drawn to her beauty and inspiration in order to paint again. I've read somewhere that watching this film is like watching painting dry, which is nonetheless true, but boring as it may sound, the shots of the artist drawing and painting his model, is what I'll remember about the film.

It is Nicolas, an aspiring artist who brings his girlfriend Marianne to Frenhofer, and he is the one who is excluded the most from his own expectations and ambitions, thus tightening Marianne and Frenhofer's special bond.

It's as if they had to meet in order to escape a directionless life, and I love the notion of no art without sacrifice, investigated throughout the film. "There must be blood on the canvas" concludes Frenhofer.

I also think that the summer surroundings creates a wonderful atmosphere of harmony, contrasting the discipline, temperament, and naked solitude exposed in Frenhofer's studio where Marianne must pose for her artist all day long.

Frenhofer shows not a shadow of a doubt during his sketching and drawing of Marianne, he is inspired to believe in his artistic vision as he's gradually gains his personal expression back, so he practices techniques as well as trying to know his model, who is a caged cat.

This is what makes Frenhofer's hand feel utterly alive on screen.