Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud [Blu-ray]

Excellent movie; trying to find yourself along with trying ti find your complementary partner regardless of age can be frustrating. Shows the Higgs and lows of that experience.

A gentle movie that explores a complex relationship. Understatement at its best.Nelly, played by the beautiful Emmanuelle Beart, is at crossroads of her life -- disillusioned with marital problems and aimless about future. She meets Arnaud, played by Michel Serrault, -- a gentleman, retired judge and businessman, wife separated -- at a cafe through a common friend. He helps her to overcome her debts and she in turn helps him to type his memoirs. Thus their interaction begins. Arnaud is infatuated by her beauty and personality (who wouldn't be?), but he is helpless in expressing that for the fact that he is of more than double-the-age of Nelly. She too is in love with the sophisticated, mature Arnaud but for the same reason as his, she is unable to accept it. She finds that her heart longs for Arnaud when she automatically rejects a live-in relationship proposed by a publisher-friend with whom she was dating and was happy.They try to be and feel that they are happy together, all the time knowing that a complete and defined relationship is impossible. Both of them are tormented by their love for each other. Is it love in the romantic sense? May not be. There is an emotional vacuum in both their lives. And they fill each other very well. She needs someone mature enough to steady her drifting, aimless life and he needs someone to illuminate his dull, boring life. It is not lust. It is not romance. It is not friendship. It is not concern. It is not finding solace. Or is it lust? Is it romance? Is it friendship? Is it concern? Is it finding solace? Frankly, I am at loss trying to comprehend the nature, complexity, depth and layers of their relationship.They know how much each one meant for the other at the time of their parting, when Arnaud's ex-wife takes him for a global tour. Arnaud, collected and withdrawn till then, embraces her passionately. Nelly, composed and passive till then, is shaken and devastated. They know it is coming to an end. The film ends with Arnaud thinking of her and Nelly trying to cope up with her daily life. I hate the ending as much as I love it. Perhaps, it was the appropriate ending. Not all relationships in life are complete; some end abruptly, some never ends.Beart and Serrault are magnificent. I am amazed by her ability to bring about a variety of emotions with subtle facial expressions and effortless motion.

Emmanuelle Beart can hold your attention but in this film she is a typist for an uninteresting man who is writing his uninteresting memoirs. The challenge is to stay awake while nothing happens

Nelly & Mr. Arnaud is an excellent french movie - I have seen it many times on the old VCRhowever when I got the DVD through Amazon I did not realize that the product, Region 2, would not work on my DVD player - unfortunately I was not sent an additional copy compatable for Region 1 - this was done previously by some other company. -So unfortunatelty I am not able to play this DVD as sent. Reminder when you order a DVD make sure it will play on USA machines, which is for Region 1 ONLY. Thank you.

Great movie with excellent acting. Not an American shoot up special effects type. A real movie about real people.

I can confirm what the previous reviewer remarked, that the editors did something wrong with how they recorded subtitles on the DVD and that they are not readable on a widescreen TV on at least several types of DVD players, while the picture itself is recorded in widescreen anamorphic. The only way we could watch it with my non-French speaking wife was to set the TV to 4:3 aspect, set the DVD player as if it was pluged on a 4:3 TV and watch the movie with gray bars on the side and black bars on top and bottom. And while the anamorphic picture looked like a beautiful transfer, for some reason two players that I have tried had trouble scaling it properly to letterbox and many "venitian blinds" artifacts appeared during pans.

This is a fantastic film!

"Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud" is a profound and enriching drama about love, independence, sharing, and separation. It follows a beautiful young woman on the point of separating from her depressed and non-working spouse. She encounters a rich and perceptive older man who offers her a job transcribing his memoirs. Though he emphatically tells her that he wants nothing from her, they grow to love and depend on each other in a non-sexual relationship that brightens their lives. There are many types of sharing and intimacy and the plot takes them both through friends and personal contacts that mean a lot to them, but do not direct their lives. This is an intelligent and rich portrait of human intimacy.

Maybe not as brilliant as Un Couer En Hiver, but the pair certainly makes a good diptych. Both with curious lead characters who are hard to fathom until you realise that they both share the same 'disorder' of high functioning autists/ aspergers, where Mr Arnaud is blissfully unaware and Stephane (Un Couer En Hiver) is all too aware.

No problems. Received in time

One of my favourite French films: well acted and directed.

Loved this film, Claude Sautet is a great director!

Bei französischen Filmen ist die Überraschung ja meist größer als bei anderen. Manchmal ist man ganz begeistert und manchmal halt auch so gar nicht. Bei diesem Film traf leider letzteres zu. Plötzlich ist der Film zu Ende und nichts ist passiert.Spoiler warning!Nelly trennt sich von ihrem Ehemann, der ein absoluter Nichtsnutz ist. Dann bekommt sie einen Job bei Herrn Arnaud. Sie soll seine Biografie für ihn abtippen. Herr Anraud ist alt genug ihr Vater zu sein, verliebt sich aber in Nelly. Diese startet dann eine kurze Affäre mit Arnauds Verleger und am Ende macht Herr Arnaud mit seiner Ex-Frau eine Weltreise. Ende.Tja. Irgendwie anticlimatic. Keine große Liebe oder Veränderung des Lebens. Am Ende ist Nelly allein. Außerdem wird man nicht richtig schlau aus ihr. Sie redet kaum, ist aber dafür sehr hübsch und verdreht jedem Mann (und fast alle Männer in diesem Film rauchen - das ist so stereotypisch für französische Filme, dass ich lachen musste) im Film den Kopf. Am Ende hat man kurz das Gefühl, dass sie Arnauds Liebe hätte erwidern können. Aber das ist reine Spekulation. Warum viele diesen Film so mögen ist mir, leider, unklar. Es gab viele gute Story-Ansätze (Scheidungen, Suizid-Versuche, Untreue, Altersunterschied, Scheidungskinder, Immobilien, Geld und alte Liebschaften) doch wurde keiner so richtig bearbeitet. Schade.