The Artist and the Model

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. Eighty-three-year-old Jean Rochefort delivers an elegant performance as a sculptor hiding from WWII in Southern France, struggling for inspiration in his twilight years. Enter 26-year-old Aida Folch as a fiery Catalan who’s escaped internment under Franco in Spain and is involved in the cross-border resistance. A live-in stint as his model proves just the ticket for both of them. Cameraman Daniel Vilar’s exquisite black-and-white lensing outlines her unclothed contours – and everything else – with a feeling of reverent seriousness, setting the film up to deliver artistic revelations that simply never arrive. Instead of developing the story’s wartime context, Trueba and veteran screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière offer passing reflections on the relationship between observation and the largely mental process of creativity, but little that ignites genuine drama. The artwork we see taking shape is so unexceptional, it’s a puzzle why such a fuss is being made of it.