The Artist and the Model

2012 1h 44m ES

😐

6.1

MID

★6.1TMDB · 53

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

In occupied France in summer 1943, a world-weary famous sculptor finds the desire to work again with the arrival of a beautiful young Spanish refugee.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Jean Rochefort
Marc Cros
Aida Folch
Mercè
Claudia Cardinale
Léa
Götz Otto
Werner
Chus Lampreave
María
Christian Sinniger
Emile
Martin Gamet
Pierre
Mateo Deluz
Henri

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Fernando Trueba
Writers: Fernando Trueba, Jean-Claude Carrière
Languages: French
Countries: Spain

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

Released 14 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

CRAFT

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Fernando Trueba, shot by Daniel Vilar. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Marta Velasco shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Jean Rochefort and Aida Folch and Claudia Cardinale carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt1990217 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

Only 53 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Fernando Trueba directs. Daniel Vilar behind the camera. Marta Velasco cuts. Produced in Spain. Dialogue in French.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 14 years ago.
2Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
3Directed by Fernando Trueba, shot by Daniel Vilar. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Editor Marta Velasco shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Jean Rochefort and Aida Folch and Claudia Cardinale carry the top of the cast.
6IMDB entry: tt1990217 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
7Only 53 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Daniel Vilar
Editing: Marta Velasco
Production design: Pilar Revuelta
Costume design: Lala Huete
Runtime: 104 min · 1h 44m
Status: Released
Original language: ES
Certification (US): R
IMDB: The Artist and the Model (2012)

Also by

Fernando Trueba

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2024-08-10
★ 7/10
Jean Rochefort and Aida Foch present quite an unique sort of love story here as he ("Cros") invites her ("Mercè") to sit for him as a muse for his sculpture. They met because his wife "Léa" (Claudia Cardinale) encountered the girl fleeing from the Nazis in the occupied part of France. She is aspiring to make it back home to Spain, bit is weak and penniless. As she poses for the elderly man, they enquire much of each other and begin to develop a bond that is entirely complementary to his marriage, but provides him with a long lost, invigorated, inspiration to create something beautiful from his block of marble. It's a slow burn, this, but somehow it manages to create a perfect framework for an evaluation of age, certainly, but also of beauty too. A beauty that is reflected on a more viscera level by the fact that Foch is naked for a great part of the film - even when not posing; but also of the beauty of the art and the craft of working the stone - something that the lighting team must take considerable credit for illustrating in an almost halo-like fashion. The dialogue is sparing but lively when it's there, and Cardinale delivers very well as the foil to the increasingly intense friendship between the two ostensibly polar opposites. The denouement wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it worked fittingly as this attractively photographed story of affection came to a close that offered a form of redemption for all.

Production companies