While filmmaking legend Jacques Rivette is perhaps best known for his 13-hour opus “Out 1,” the director’s latter-day career had its own share of masterpieces. And none were as epic as 1991’s “La Belle Noiseuse,” which is now returning to the big screening for its 25th anniversary, with a new 4K restoration, and in its full, uncut 238-minute runtime.
Starring Michel Piccoli, Jane Birkin, and Emmanuelle Béart, the film is about an artist becoming creatively reborn, as well as a dramatic documentation of the creative process. The film was highly acclaimed upon its release in 1991, and it’s a cinematic experience not to be missed this time around. Here’s the official synopsis:
Threading the needle between a narrative film about an artist and a documentary recording of the creative act, Jacques Rivette infuses his Balzac adaptation with erotic tension and suspenseful drama. All-but-retired painter Michel Piccoli, living en Provence with wife and onetime muse Jane Birkin, becomes inspired by visitor Emmanuelle Béart. He picks up the brush once again as his newly anointed model poses nude for the duration. The Quad is presenting Rivette’s film, gorgeously restored in its original uncut four-hour form, which caused a sensation at the Cannes Film Festival and which was named Best Foreign Language Film by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
“La Belle Noiseuse” opens on Friday, November 24th in New York City at the Quad.
