PodBill Just what I expected

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

RResende the last film i commented on was something i considered offensive, "les anges exterminateurs". It earned me some criticism by an angry reader, and i reviewed that film after so i could re-consider my opinion. I stand for my opinion: the film was offensive in how it assumed it was a film about voyeurism and its relation with sex while being simply the result of an adolescent approach to sex, and its director looks at those women as a 14 year old who gets to look at a girl's locker room through a broken glass. It's superficial, and offensive because it takes itself seriously.So, after that, i looked for this one. Still french, still about picturing sex situations. But this is a whole different sport. It's directed and conceived by a woman, and that is significant to the whole final product. I think women are more internal when looking to others. So this film has an interesting dimension of using the female body (and face!) to dig into the women. Those women are fictional, but good fictional characters. The two leading ladies acting is good and supportive of the director's intentions i think. And above all, what we have is not gratuitous. Images come as visual supporters for a story, not as mere illustration. And most important, unlike "anges", here we have images that allow for the development of the story in our minds (thus visual storytelling). In "anges" we had some story about some director wanting to make a sex film, that was a mere excuse for the depiction of nudity.It is the honesty of this film that i crave, every time i see a film. The film may not be as original as it could (and this film certainly is not so original) but i praise its intellectual honesty.Stick with this, it will mildly challenge you. Not the other one.My opinion: 3/5 http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com

trolljente2002 I've seen this movie on TV some days ago. I knew a little about the plot from some cinema advertisement but had no clue about the end. So I was positively surprised by it. Usually the ménage à trois ends tragically, but here the viewer's imagination may to some extension finish the story individually. I had read bad comments about this movie in the French press and while watching it myself I really wondered what for? Two of France's most popular actresses and a typical French topic is obviously not enough to satisfy the critics nowadays. OK, the descriptions of sex which actually had not taken place at all seem a bit too long and too monotonous in the beginning, but after having seen the complete movie the viewer should have understood the meaning of that this kind of telling about fictional sex only serves to keep Catherine's attention as long as possible. If the stories would have been too good and exiting she might have tried to explore her new insights at once and by this Catherine would have stopped her deal with "Nathalie" too soon. I was most fascinated by the actresses' capability of shaping such a tension concerning their relation ship on the screen. It becomes clear quite soon that there's more in between these two women than just a client-customer deal but you never know who will take the next step. Fanny Ardant's facial expression for desire is legendary, just have a look at her in "Eight women". If there's somebody who knows to seduce convincingly on the screen, it's her. This movie may have been designed more for TV-broadcasting than in cinemas, but it's a nice piece of erotic entertainment.

nycritic An erotic game in which the temptress is commissioned to seduce a man caught in flagranti delicto and has her own little deck of cards which she decides to use against the person who sets her up to this game. It sounds complicated, but it isn't, and NATHALIE... is one of the breeziest movies I've seen in a long time. It never decides if it really wants us to believe that the call girl Christine hires to play with her husband is really doing so, but Nathalie's own incursions into her own sensual world seem to play into the gnawing thoughts of Christine. All throughout, there's this delightful feeling of suspense, not because someone may wind up getting whacked in the head, but because there seems to be more than one secret to be disclosed at a key moment and the story walks a tightrope between what is clear, what is implied, and what never has happened with the deft pacing of a graceful ballerina. It helps that even at its drabbest moments, there's this intoxicating aura of saturation, colors that wouldn't exist in real life, but glow with their own inner life, a suggestion of the inner lives of the two women at the center of the story. It's appropriate, as well, to a story steaming with erotic overtones all throughout -- this is Marguerite Duras for the new century, with two people engaged in a subtle battle of who's framing who while one tells stories, and the other seems to take in like a sponge and only hint at reactions. Excellent is the choice of casting Emmanuelle Beart as the icy sex kitten and Fanny Ardant as the reserved professional who here bears more than a passing resemblance to Ingrid Bergman, circa CACTUS FLOWER (in more ways than one). If there's any less interesting character it's that of Gerard Depardieu, and his small role is there for a crucial reason. It's a shame that this movie didn't get more critical acclaim because it's a very well-told story, with modulated performances -- the type that simmer like bubbles in champagne -- and even when it is an erotic story of the oldest type, it doesn't feel stale.

filikoster I just happened to stumble upon this great little movie in the video store. A very good storyline, believable acting, unusual twists. For once this all-star french cast seems to let go of the the typical french "all-star-cast" clichés. A lot of times is seems the only french male leading actors are Depardieu, Daniel Auteuil and Jean Reno. Who keeps repeating their characters for film to film.Having seen it I was surprised not having heard of it sooner, but I hear it flopped at the box office.I had grown a bit tired of these kind of french films over the years, but this one has sparked my interest anew. 4/5