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Nathalie

EMAILPRINTKoch Lorber Films

Nathalie reviews
69
8.0 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 11 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 4 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama  |  Foreign

Written by: Jacques Fieschi
Anne Fontaine
François-Olivier Rousseau
Philippe Blasband (original idea)

Directed by: Anne Fontaine

Release Date:
Theatrical: April 14, 2006
DVD: May 2, 2006

Running Time: 100 minutes, Color

Origin: France / Spain

Language(s): French (with English subtitles)

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Fanny Ardant, Emmanuelle Béart, Gérard Depardieu, Wladimir Yordanoff, Judith Magre, Rodolphe Pauly, Évelyne Dandry, and Christian Aaron Boulogne

Catherine (Ardant) is an attractive woman with a great career and a seemingly solid marriage to Bernard (Depardieu), her husband of 25 years. Their lives seem to be going well until Catherine discovers that Bernard is having an affair. Realizing that she does not really know her husband or what he really wants, Catherine hires Marlene (Béart), a beautiful prostitute, to act as "Nathalie," a woman who will seduce Bernard and extract answers to the questions that are obsessing her. (Koch Lorber)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

88

New York Post Kyle Smith

Similar to the recent Emmanuelle Devos drama "Gilles' Wife," but it's as cool as that one was melodramatic.

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80

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Nathalie becomes a complicated three-handed game, far more concerned with the narcissistic, pornographic and mutually manipulative relationship between Catherine and Nathalie than with the latter's purported affair with Bernard. If you live in New York, run, don't walk to see this on the big screen, because it won't be there long.

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75

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

In different hands and different lands, the same story could easily have been a pretentious bit of "Red Shoe Diaries" piffle. But exceptional performances and the oh-so-Frenchness of the complications instead produce an erotic tale that plays like the best gossipy story you ever heard about people you thought you knew.

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75

ReelViews James Berardinelli

So what keeps the movie from being boring? Nathalie... is like lewd Eric Rohmer - that is to say that what the characters have to say is INTERESTING.

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75

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

A stylish, sharply observed erotic mystery.

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70

Village Voice Ed Park

Nathalie is intricate, provocative, cleanly acted, but it's never entirely convincing--and never more so than in the table-turning climax.

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70

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

Depardieu, a great actor who in recent years has delivered several overblown performances, is here measured and naturalistic, a sympathetic match for Ardant's icy obsessive, and Beart is suitably mysterious as a spy in the house of love.

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70

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

Whatever the plot, it is soothing to be in the company of Fanny Ardant, who plays Catherine and whose twenty-five-year career is dotted with small treasures.

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70

The New York Times Anita Gates

Anne Fontaine's seductive film Nathalie is mostly about French star power and sex, so it's somewhat surprising that it is also subtle and intriguing.

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50

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

An unconvincing psychosexual drama that tries to reconfigure the classic romantic triangle but winds up looking like a preposterous pretzel.

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50

Variety Derek Elley

An intellectual-cum-sexual teaser whose twist is apparent far too early on.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Marc K. gave it an8:
Very interesting, and very sexy. Emmanuelle Beart is great in the lead role. Fanny Ardant also has a strong performance. Gerard Depardieu has the most famous name, but is barely in the picture. His role could have been played by just about anyone.

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