Gary Dretzka
Leonard Klady
David Poland
Ray Pride
Patricia Vidal

The other film is Nathalie… from Anne Fontaine, who, after leading to this movie with the sadly underseen How I Killed My Father, now has to be held as one of the truly great dramatic writer/directors of French cinema specifically and world cinema in general. She is beyond being blithely compared to any of her predecessors, but to say that she is showing herself worthy of consideration with filmmakers of the human heart like Eric Rohmer would not be excessive praise.

The hard part about Fontaine is that her works seem to fit right in the cracks of the current indie film business, not quite exploitable enough for some minis. But I hope and pray that a Searchlight or a Focus would see the value in being in business with this special director. Nathalie… (the ellipsis is part of the title, if you were wondering) does have some nudity from the still gorgeous Emmanuelle Beart, a lot of sexual description, the spectacular adult beauty of Fanny Ardant and one of the most subtle performances from Gerard Depardieu you’ll see. The performances of the women are quite excellent, beyond their saleable values. So maybe the folks who brought us 8 Women and then won big with Swimming Pool or the Searchlighters who gently pushed Cecelia Roth this summer, will jump in. I hope so. It should be an honor to be connected to this film.

The story of a woman who discovers that her husband has casual affairs and seeks out a high-end prostitute to investigate the process of starting such an affair first hand is a fascinating game of cat and cat and mouse. The theme of lost passion has been quite popular this year, but Fontaine delivers a completely unique take on the issue. (The film also bears more than a little subtextual resemblance to In The Cut as well and, like the earlier comparison, the smaller film trumps the bigger films – at least, as shown in Toronto – in this case as well.)

by David Poland

Nathalie...
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Director: Anne Fontaine
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Country: France
Year: 2003
Time: 100 minutes

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Cast: Fanny Ardant,
Emmanuelle Béart, Gérard Depardieu
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Production Company:
Les Films Alain Sarde
Executive Producer: Alain Sarde
Producer: Christine Gozlan
Screenplay: Anne Fontaine, Jacques Fieshi, based on an original work by Philippe Blasband
Cinematography: Jean-Marc Fabre
Editor: Emmanuelle Castro
Production Designer: Michel Barthélémy
Sound: Jean-Claude Laureux, Jean-Pierre Laforce
Music: Michael Nyman