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NATHALIE
Directed by: Anne Fontaine.
Produced by: Alain Sarde.
Written by: Anne Fontaine, Jacques Fieschi, François-Olivier Rousseau, based on an original script by Philippe Blasband.
Director of Photography: Jean-Marc Fabre.
Edited by: Emmanuelle Castro.
Music by: Michael Nyman.
Released by: Koch Lorber.
Language: French with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: France/Spain. 105 min. Not Rated.
With: Fanny Ardant, Emmanuelle Béart & Gérard Depardieu.

It’s a pitiful sign of the times when a film with a top-notch cast that includes Fanny Ardant, Gérard Depardieu and Emmanuelle Béart is released in the US three years after its original release date. Between the leonine Ardant, the streets of Paris, and the nearly hypnotic score by Michael Nyman, the sophisticated Nathalie oozes with elegance.

Perhaps if hot-shot architect Bernard (Depardieu) had not missed his flight and thus his surprise birthday party, his wife Catherine (Ardant) wouldn’t have listened to his voicemail after he absent-mindedly left behind his cell phone the following day. But one message confirms her fears: he was with another woman the night before. Rather than sink into depression or angrily fight back, Catherine wants to know what he was seeking outside of their bedroom. Gathering enough courage, she enters one evening the strip joint around the corner of her medical practice, sizes up a blond waitress (Béart) and concludes the younger woman is just her husband’s type. Catherine makes her an offer: show up at her husband’s favorite café at his accustomed hour and report back to her the next day and divulge everything that ensues. The stripper/waitress assumes at first Catherine’s husband is disabled or the request is for a three-way, but with little prompting – and for the right price – she agrees to the proposal. And as part of her assignment, the waitress takes the pseudonym of Nathalie.

What sets Nathalie apart is not so much the relationship between Bernard and the two women, but the bond between the wife and the prostitute/mistress, which quickly shifts from being all business to a secret sisterhood in which their dialogue turns to girl talk. A scene later in the film with Nathalie, Catherine and Catherine’s mother is reminiscent of Corrine Serreau’s multi-generational female-bonding domestic drama/thriller Chaos. Actually, Depardieu’s role is rather small here. It’s really Ardant’s film.

Due in part to the subtle acting, in which Ardant and Béart slowly shed layer after layer of their characters’ facades, and in part to the lean and enigmatic script, the film lives up to its provocative premise. Béart’s rigid mask of beauty enhances Nathalie’s inscrutability as her visits with Bernard become more frequent and her reports to Catherine more explicit (the Sphinx as whore). Her recounts of her rendezvous could have been lifted from the pages of Penthouse Forum. But as Ardant radiates a warmth and natural glow, you may have to remind yourself which character is supposed to be the more sensual.

However, vignettes of Catherine at home, at work, or sauntering down a street in a medium or wide shot create a distance between the audience and an already coolly detached character, which perhaps accounts for the hesitation of distributors. Also at times the actress has been given little to do except stand and pose. Though still intriguing, the result is an expansive telling of a triangle that is inherently intimate. Kent Turner
April 14, 2006