Northwest Film Forum

Film will be introduced by Ph.D. Candidate Fabrizio Cilento, U of W. With a story loosely based on Balzac’s LE CHEF D’OEUVRE INCONNU, LA BELLE NOISEUSE re-introduced Rivette to the wider art-house audience. Edouard Frenhofer (Michel Piccoli in a career-defining role) plays an ageing artist who long ago abandoned the title painting, for which his wife (Jane Birkin) was the model. Despite initial reluctance, he is persuaded to resume work on his masterpiece, now using a young painter’s girlfriend (Emmanuelle Béart) as the model. A stately, sexy rumination on the process and real-life effects of artistic creation and collaboration, it is also the only Rivette film focused primarily on a man.