La Belle Noiseuse (1991)

"La Belle Noiseuse" (The Beautiful Troublemaker) is Jacques Rivette's exploration on an artist's frustration towards transcendence. Running for almost 4 hours, the film attempts to immerse us in the experience of an aging artist in his struggle to complete his masterpiece. Delicately weaved by Rivette, it is a poignant meandering on the limits of art.

Loosely adapted from Honore de Balzac's short story "The Unknown Masterpiece", the plot revolves around the encounters of two couples - Frenhofer (Michel Piccoli), an old painter and his wife Liz (Jane Birkin), a former model; and Nicolas (David Bursztein), a young artist and Marianne (Emmanuelle Beart), his muse. Inspiration strikes Frenhofer upon seeing Marianne; her youth and beauty enkindles him to revisit a masterpiece that he has abandoned for years - "La Belle Noiseuse", a piece he had originally worked on with his wife who then served as his muse. Conflict strikes as their partners are stricken with jealousy, but the even bigger contention lies in Frenhofer's inability to execute his vision as he gets caught up in his pursuit to recreate a lost moment from his past and translate it in his painting. Naked, Marriane bears her soul to aid him in this quest, albeit their personal clashes and her initial apprehensions. Despite almost having withdrawn from the project several times, the two ultimately to rekindle each other's passions with Frenhofer's last-ditch effort to culminate his magnum opus.

Essentially at the heart of the film is Frenhofer and Marianne's extensive sessions - his attempts to transcend the limits of his medium and how she deals with his eccentricity. We anticipate his vision as we are made to view almost every stroke, overbearing in its length, as the real-time shots of Frenhofer's hand strokes are made to linger. We eavesdrop on their conversations to appease our own struggle to relate to him but Rivette teases us by exquisitely concealing information, leaving us wondering in our own imagination; as in the end, even we are kept from the truth with the film's secret known only to Frenhofer, Marianne, Liz and a bystander.

Despite its length, the film is engrossing and works almost like a novel. Rivette's shots work well like an eloquent writer's thorough description of every element in a scenario. His long takes allow us to feel as if we are truly part of the film, imposing our own relation to Frenhofer's frustrations. The film as Rivette's own canvass serve as a brilliant masterwork in itself, with each frame evoking a sense of beauty and wonder. Quite indeed, "La Belle Noiseuse" may well in fact be the veteran French New Wave director's own masterpiece.