Main Cast: Fanny Ardant, Emmanuelle Béart, Gérard Depardieu, Judith Magre, Vladimir Yordanoff
Release Year: 2003
Country: FR
Run Time: 100 minutes
Plot
A middle-aged woman fears that her husband is cheating on her -- and chooses a very unlikely method for verifying her paranoia -- in this psychological drama from the writer of Une Liaison Pornographique. Catherine (Fanny Ardant) is a successful Parisian gynecologist whose long-term marriage to Bernard (Gérard Depardieu) has been passionless as of late. When she checks his cell phone messages one afternoon, she discovers a suggestive "thank you" from a young colleague of his, which creates an even wider chasm between the two. Desperate, Catherine goes to an upscale strip club nearby to solicit the services of Nathalie (Emmanuelle Béart), a matter-of-fact prostitute. It seems Catherine wants Nathalie to seduce Bernard and report back to her each week, an assignment that's initially off-putting to the young woman, but one she begins to relish as the weeks pass. Soon, Nathalie is using intimate details to fuel Catherine's rage toward her husband. Nathalie... had its gala North American premiere at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
Review
Awash in juicy, erotic melodrama but bearing one all-too-obvious plot twist, Anne Fontaine's psychological drama nonetheless provides a glimpse of two generations of French actresses at the top of their game. To think of Nathalie... as 8 Women divided by four would be somewhat misleading: Though it stars two of the duplicitous principals from François Ozon's campy 2002 mystery, the tone of this pairing is deathly serious, which makes the script's erotic element all the more believable, but makes its so-what conclusion even more apparent. Writer Philippe Blasband keeps his plot as simple as that of his breakthrough feature, the teasing, enigmatic Une Liason Pornographique, but the questions left unanswered in that film are mostly spelled out here; and although the dynamic between Fanny Ardant and Emmanuelle Béart is never less than fascinating, it does grow repetitive and increasingly less mysterious as Nathalie... progresses. It's rare that a film can generate carnal heat solely through its dialogue, and Ardant and Béart are more than up to the challenge of performing it -- but a breather or two of humor would've gone a long way in making Fontaine's film more believable. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
The main character, Catherine (Fanny Ardant) discovers that her husband (Gérard Depardieu) is cheating on her. She decides to pay a Parisian prostitute (Emmanuelle Béart) to have an affair with her husband, and report back to her.
