Nelly et monsieur Arnaud

Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud, Claude Sautet's latest film, is closely related to "A Heart in Winter" from 1991, which made a great impression on me. Emmanuelle Béart once again plays the female lead, the beautiful but inscrutable Nelly, who is unhappy in her marriage to Jérôme. While Nelly works her backside off to make ends meet, Jérôme lounges in front of the TV all day.

Through a slightly older friend, Nelly meets the elderly wealthy Monsieur Arnaud, who offers to pay her debts and at the same time offers her a job as his secretary and critic on the autobiography he is in the process of writing. He has no ulterior motives. All Monsieur Arnaud wants is friendship. Nelly acts on the offer and leaves her bone-idle husband to make a fresh start, and an unusually intimate friendship gradually develops between Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud. It is a friendship that teeters on the edge of love, but this aspect is played down.

Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud is a psychological chamber piece - and yet not quite. Sautet's characters are not at all easy to figure out. This is especially true of Nelly, who throughout the film seems rather unresolved, not least in her relations with other men. The ending is open and melancholy, and there are signs that Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud may be a thing of the past.