The Artist and The Model

Director: Fernando Trueba. First released: 2012. Cast: Jean Rochefort as Marc Cros; Aida Folch as Mercè; Claudia Cardinale as Léa, Cros’ wife; Chua Lampreave as the elderly maid, María. Written by: Fernando Trueba and Jean-Claude Carrière. Photography by Daniel Vilar. Art Direction: Pilar Revuelta

This French language film with English subtitles takes place in 1943 as World War II is ending and the context is the countryside home of a well-known sculptor and his wife. Some scenes take place in the nearby village where German soldiers and French locals cohabit in a mix of interactions, sharing space and food surrounded by daily town life, seemingly unscathed by the war. The rages of conflict and battle are at a distance and evidence of the occupation is only apparent through the presence of the uniformed Germans marching through the peaceful village.

In this environment, the elderly, retired sculptor Marc Cros lives with his wife Léa and an equally aged maidservant María in peaceful but empty circumstances. One day while on a shopping trip to the town marketplace, Léa and the servant discover a young Spanish girl sleeping in a doorway and bathing in the town fountain; she is dirty and ragged with scratches and bruises. Léa, with wide eyed intelligence and sense of purpose, decides to engage her as the sculptor’s new model. The couple offers money, food, housing and a bed in exchange for modelling. To her surprise, the young woman finds that she must pose nude, but she agrees to the bargain and settles into a routine in working with the artist. What is also exposed early on is that Cros has, in many ways, given up on his creative endeavours and perhaps on life itself; the dust-covered studio has been shut for years. His wife has brought in this young woman as a means to enliven her husband and help him to again find his connection to beauty and the artistic process. Through the interaction between artist and model, life begins to flourish. The old man will recover his d