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Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Critic Consensus: No consensus yet.
All Critics (43) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (30) | Rotten (13)
This film has its own nature, almost its own reality. The sudden finish almost seems meant to make it our responsibility to comprehend the whole.
That old arthouse chestnut, about the restorative power of naked young women, gets another outing in this pretty but superficial musing on the creative process.
The film's insights about beauty are ... superficial. They amount to such commonplace observations as the fact that no two leaves are alike.
"The Artist and the Model" is a contemplative ode to creativity and imagination.
It is about inspiration and beauty, of course - and Folch, as a vagabond who escaped from a Spanish refugee camp, is certainly inspiring and beautiful.
Partly about the importance of fresh observation, the film has little new to say about life, inspiration or art.
Trueba offers a great deal of charm, in what is a quiet, reflective drama.
This is a gentle picture emphasizing discipline, hard work and patience.
It's a luminous exploration into art and the human condition.
Shot in stately black and white, as if overeager to mitigate any hint of prurience.
For anyone who has actually created something -- or been frustrated by their inability to do so -- Fernando Trueba's film stands to offer a dose of quiet resonance.
While these ruminations on life, death, art and suchlike don't necessarily say anything original, they're nonetheless uttered eloquently ...
"The Artist and the Model" starts with Lea(Claudia Cardinale) noticing Merce(Aida Folch) sleeping in a doorway in occupied France. It turns out that Merce is a refugee from Franco's Spain, having spent some time in a camp. Sensing an opportunity, Lea offers Merce room, board and a little money in exchange for posing nude for her husband Marc(Jean Rochefort), a sculptor, which she accepts. Lea is right that Merce is the right physical type for her husband's artwork, even though Merce wish nobody else would stop by. As far as diversions go, "The Artist and the Model" is a perfectly respectable and pleasant one, filmed in black and white with a few old school dissolves to boot. While it may seem strange for such a story to be set during World War II, just remember that wars are not always fought without a break. And I like Marc's original take on the biblical creation of men and women, as this is not the first time a Garden of Eden analogy could be applied to nude posing.(As somebody else once pointed out, "Sirens" would be the other movie.) At first, the camera respects Merce's initial reticence at posing before she becomes much more comfortable, eschewing a fig leaf, and even sleeping in the buff.
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