Time and space put together create an existence. The existence that La Belle Noiseuse illustrates is human interaction. An existence with human relations offers both abstracts and tangibles, however, a complete description of existence is very difficult to illustrate in regards to human relation. A complete description would illustrate moments of thought, feeling, and action, as these would interact with one another. Thus, reality is a muddled concoction of the tangible and intangible. The complete image of the truth will never be fully uncovered, as reality does not allow the audience to know the secrets that each individual possesses in their mind. Despite the abstract concept of ultimate truth, La Belle Noiseuse conceptualizes such a moment where time and space merge into existence while it flirts with the notion of complete illustration of human existence.

The story opens in a small courtyard during a sweltering summer day where Nicolas (David Bursztein) is sitting in the shadow enjoying a cup of coffee. His girlfriend Marianne (Emmanuelle Béart) sneaks up on him taking a photo while pretending to be a paparazzi. Two British women see the moment when Marianne takes the picture with the camera and the following situation, as they quickly come to their assumption of the situation. However, this moment provides an insight to what is to come in the film, as the audience realizes that one cannot always trust what one sees.

Porbus (Gilles Arbona), a friend of Nicolas and Marianne, arrives later the same day and he is to bring Nicolas who is an up and coming painter to meet Edouard Frenhofer (Michel Piccoli). Frenhofer's wife, Liz, (Jane Birkin), greets them when they arrive and it seems Frenhofer has forgotten about his meeting with Nicolas. However, Frenhofer returns home after they have waited for sometime in the hot afternoon sun sipping on something cool. The sixty-year-old Frenhofer used to be a talented painter, but has not accomplished anything of significance in the last decade.

During the visit at the Frenhofer's château, the audience will experience an ominous atmosphere, as if to warn the characters in the film. Marianne recognizes there is something strange in the works, but Nicolas who wants to meet with Frenhofer puts her worries aside. However, the bizarre ambiance continues to hang in the air, until Porbus accidentally shakes up the atmosphere at a late supper.

The heat makes the small group seek the cool air of Frenhofer's studio. Their conversation leads toward art and Frenhofer's creations, which eventually leads to La Belle Noiseuse. La Belle Noiseuse is a painting that Frenhofer never created, but rather exists as an idea. However, something suggests that it actually was painted, but he never was satisfied with the painting and it may have disappeared. Later, when Porbus accidentally shakes up the atmosphere, the idea of using Marianne as a model for the La Belle Noiseuse materializes. Nicolas agrees that it is a good idea and accepts on Marianne's behalf while Porbus agrees to purchase the painting. Up to this point, the audience will only have seen less than 30 minutes of this epic four-hour long film.

Later Marianne learns from Nicolas that he has accepted that she will model for Frenhoher. Frustration boils up inside of her, but instead of following her own will she returns to the château to begin her modeling. Cleverly, the director Jacques Rivette displays prolonged scenes where the audience can observe the creation of several sketches over the artist's shoulder. Vigorously Frenhofer attempts to capture the essence of Marianne while she resists giving whatever he struggles to transfer to a canvas. The audience can hear Frenhofer's hard work, as the pen is scratching the paper on which he is making sketches to help him capture the true Marianne.

Throughout Frenhofer's artistic process, the audience can bear witness to Nicolas who begins change his mind as he feels both guilt and jealousy. Initially, Liz offers comfort to Nicolas, but she too slowly changes her disposition of loving support to jealousy. However, Liz's jealousy is not in regards to her husband being able to see Marianne naked all day, but rather due to a void inside her. Simultaneously, as she is dealing with her jealousy she tries to protect Marianne from a painful experience, which she knows will hurt her at the end.

La Belle Noiseuse is a brave film that tries to show something new, which Jacques Rivette successfully does. The cerebral process and emotional struggle of an artist is brought to the light through painstakingly long scenes, which are necessary to depict what Rivette attempts to show. Rivette proves that it is possible to combine the intangible and the tangible in one image, as he shows the long process of bringing them together in time and space on a simple fabric of canvas.

Read the other reviews! I have only seen the VHS version. Quite long, but a very nice story! Emmanuelle Beart is the best reason to watch this movie! She is gorgeous and naked through most of the film! An old man who is a renound artist who has not painted for 10 years, because he has "lost vision" is inspired by a new model ( Emmanuelle Beart ) to try again to paint his "masterpiece", an idea he was working on many years ago!
He puts Emmanuelle through Hell, modelling for him. Many times he is tempted to give up! He finally paints the perfect: "La Belle Noiseuse"! It is both BEAUTIFUL and EVIL! ( You never see the damn painting!!! Ha ha! ) It casts a bad light on the model! There is an underlying story within this story. What does the artist do with his masterpiece? Will people think the artist is a failure? Does he show his painting to the world? One of the very very best French Films I have ever seen!!! I thought at the end that the film deserved to win an award and it did!!! It WON a TOP French film award!!! An excellent movie!!!

It is said that just before death the sum total of a person's existence passes before the eyes in a fraction of a second. The essence! Truth without pretense. For the artist, "La Belle Noiseuse" is that essence captured on canvas. Edouard Frenhofer is a master painter who has spent the past 10 years languishing in contented happiness. Languishing because an artist actively pursing the truth in art is never contented. Blood needs to be shed and suffering must be endured for truth can be cruel. "La Belle Noiseuse" was Frenhofer's unfinished masterpiece; an attempt that was abandoned. To paint the truth it is not enough to merely copy what is seen by the eyes. One must go all the way, to penetrate, to . . . invent! This film painstakingly details the relationship between the artist and the model. The attempt by the artist to venture into the soul, and to return not only with the essence of the subject, but the essence of the artist as well. The script is loosely based on the short story "The Unknown Masterpiece" by Honore de Balzac. This tale was also highly influential on the painter Picasso.

I try to watch this movie once a year. It is a gorgeous, slow moving thing. The better part of the movie is taken up with the battle between Frehofer and the form he is trying to bring to life on the canvas, with Emmanuelle Beart as his model. He gives up... she gives up... but they plow on through. The story is unsullied by any erotic (or at least, overtly erotic) connection between the two. But there is none of the neurotic histrionics and unrequited sacrifices of the usual films about artist: there is just the hard, greuling, work of having a vision and getting it right.

This is freely based on the story "The Unknown Masterpiece" by Balzac. If only more movies "freely based" on a story could be as fine as this one. Knowing the story, which is a short novella, may actually add to the appreciation of the film and the character of Frenhofer.

Emmanuelle Béart, is used to being the object of desire, one of the most beautiful women, especially in motion. This film slowly and delicately takes the viewer into a different reality where what was seen to be extraordinary is immobilized and captured and transformed into the overly familiar. A space where if love is to exist it must be based on the beauty of the spirit within.