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Meditations on life and art

There are two pivotal moments in Fernando Trueba's lovely, elegiac The Artist and the Model, and they both have to do with the elderly gentleman played by Jean Rochefort, a sculptor and painter by the name of Marc Cros, imparting a bit of wisdom to his new, young Catalan model, Mercé (Aida Folch).

The Artist and the Model. Merce (Aida Folch) ,Marc Cros (Jean Rochfort).Cohen Media
The Artist and the Model. Merce (Aida Folch) ,Marc Cros (Jean Rochfort).Cohen MediaRead more

There are two pivotal moments in Fernando Trueba's lovely, elegiac The Artist and the Model, and they both have to do with the elderly gentleman played by Jean Rochefort, a sculptor and painter by the name of Marc Cros, imparting a bit of wisdom to his new, young Catalan model, Mercé (Aida Folch).

In one, she finds a drawing in his studio. It is by Rembrandt, of a child learning to walk. Cros explains that the Dutch master probably knocked it off in a flash, like a snapshot, a captured moment. And in that moment, there is everything to know about life, about art.

In the other scene, with the old man and the young woman at a table in the sun beside his ramshackle studio in the Pyrenees, he talks about the existence of God - the proof of which, he tells her, can be found in the beauty of the female form.

Shot in dreamlike black and white and set in the middle of World War II, The Artist and the Model is a slow-moving, meditative piece about art and the creative process (Cros knows Matisse and knew Cézanne, and we are asked to think of him in the same league). 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.

And naive. It is Cros' wife, Lea (Claudia Cardinale), who first spots the girl huddled in a doorway in the village, and who invites her to the couple's home. Lea had once been Cros' model, but Mercé doesn't know what an artist's model does, or why someone paints or sculpts. As she goes to work for Cros, sleeping in the small bed in the cottage up the hill from town, Mercé learns a thing or two.

Or three. There is another pivotal turn in The Artist and the Model: a heartbreaking few seconds of tenderness and transcendence as Mercé reaches out to the man who is nearing the end of his life, taking his head in both of her hands.

What strange transference is this?

The Artist and the Model *** (Out of four stars)

Directed by Fernando Trueba. With Jean Rochefort, Aida Folch, and Claudia Cardinale. In French with subtitles. Distributed by Cohen Media Group.

Running time: 1 hour, 41 mins.

Parent's guide: No MPAA rating (nudity, adult themes)

Playing at: Ritz BourseEndText