This film is just unbearable to watch for 4 hours unless you are a pretentious, arty farty w....ker who thinks it is cool because it is about an artist. The only good thing about the film is the long scenes of the beautiful young naked woman. The wanky reviewers who rave about this just don't realise that subconsciously the only good thing about this film is the nudity.

Elitist porn i suppose. Acting is mediocre and it's all contrived and silly. Typical French cinema. Italians are warm and smart and this is cold and dumb. An aging artist getting his kicks out of being sullen and uninteresting. The aging artist has a wife who used to pose for him and they almost split up over it. Big deal! They all sit around eating or hanging out when not doing the art naked bit. The conversations are as stilted and boring as anything i've heard. French mumbo jumbo yakking and yakking and yakking about 'nothing of any importance. They have a tone in their voice as if to say their talking is important and it's as trite as can be. There's no substance or plot. I think i could have liked it if it were 90 minutes long. But, even 90 of this is too much. Whether his art is 'good' or 'bad' is irrelevant. Everyone is an 'artist' i some way. Just slow pretentious talking going nowhere. 80% of the film is just scratching paper. I guess were supposed to think this is 'the artists process' which is ridiculous since all artists work different. There is no humor anywhere in the nearly 4 hours. I can't recall one ounce of humor or levity. Artists i know , during posing sessions may carry on a conversation but it's not going to be pretentious short of the mark philosophizing from nowhere going nowhere. There's no point to this bore. The words are put in these folks mouths by writers who have their heads in the clouds. One guy said 'good show if you like watching paint dry'. That sums it up perfectly. I wouldn't watch the rest if i hadn't paid to watch it. I'm writing this while the aging artist and wife are arguing with words that mean nothing. The model is so stilted and dull. I don't think there is even a smile. Everyone is SULLEN and SAD. Dull people doing dull things. Blows my mind people like this. I ain't on that band wagon' This flick is ridiculous.

The former famous painter Frenhofer (Michel Piccoli) revisits an abandoned project using the girlfriend (Emmanuelle Béart) of a young visiting artist. Questions about truth, life, and artistic limits are explored.The film is loosely adapted from the short story "The Unknown Masterpiece" by Honoré de Balzac and also includes elements from "The Liar", "The Figure in the Carpet", and "The Aspern Papers" by Henry James. One does not need to have read any of these works to appreciate the film, however.Some critics say the film is like watching paint dry, because very little happens and it has a running time of over four hours! But, at the same time ,this is sort of its charm. It just goes slow, unfolding, and getting the job done. Is the story of the artist or the model? Do they grow together, or grow apart?

I really like the nude scene in this film, so I thought, why not watching the whole film. Well, I almost did, but ended up shutting off the TV about one and half hours after it started. In the first hour of the movie you see people talk what seem like small talks. In the next 20 minutes you see that artist guy drawing. Then she finally gets undressed, making the movie not any more interesting. Still small talks. Still watching paint dry. Days of Our Lives has faster pace. Most of the people here who gave it a high score did it to look smart. I don't see how enduring 4 hours of watching small talks, paint dry and tasteful nudity (yes, that gets boring as well) makes a person smart. So like the kid who yelled "the king is naked" I'll say "the movie is boring".