NELLY & MONSIEUR ARNAUD (56)

Directed by: Claude Sautet

Starring: Emmanuelle Beart, Michel Serrault, Jean-Hugues Anglade

The Pitch: A young Parisienne, deep in debt and married to a man who's apparently lost his interest in life, meets a rather eccentric middle-aged gentleman who pays off her debts and offers her a job.

Theo Sez: LES VOLEURS had its alternating viewpoints, LE GARCU its little boy, this director's UN COEUR EN HIVER its classical music and haunting final shot - something, in each case, to structure our feelings around, to separate narrative and dramatic inconclusiveness (good) from the emotional kind (problematic). Here there's nothing - just the nuances of human behaviour, which is thoroughly admirable but less than satisfying. It's a bit like watching a couple dance without being able to listen to the music - graceful and clearly skilful, but without that fusion of disparate elements (sound and movement in that case, poetic form and naturalistic content in this one) that might make it worth remembering. Performances are superlative, and there's any number of moments where a single glance does the work of a whole scene - my favourite probably the way Nelly watches her ex-husband then casts her eyes to the floor as she realises he's changed, and for the better, since they separated. Subtle and precise, but overall a bit of a disappointment.