El artista y la modelo 2012

Miriam Bale, New York Times: It ... casts art as being less about ideas than the opportunity to work with beautiful people and the inevitable temptation to bed them. But this isn't surprising from a film that is bereft of ideas itself. Read more

Jonathan Holland, Variety: An exquisitely crafted miniature about the creative rebirth of an aging sculptor, Fernando Trueba's The Artist and the Model brings the same craft and care to its subject as its titular artist does to his own work. Read more

Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: While it has a few lovely, tender moments, there's a definite feeling of "been there, drawn that." Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: It's a miniature art history lesson that is also a rapt communion between two people who, at least in this moment, are joined in the ecstasy of creation. Read more

Neil Young, Hollywood Reporter: Nicely elegiac, proudly old-fashioned tale of wartime passions, with veteran French star Jean Rochefort a likely award-magnet. Read more

Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times: The lovely and poignant drama "The Artist and the Model" stirringly presents art, life and death as one irrevocably tangled trio. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: "The Artist and the Model" is a contemplative ode to creativity and imagination. Read more

Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic: This film has its own nature, almost its own reality. The sudden finish almost seems meant to make it our responsibility to comprehend the whole. Read more

Tomas Hachard, NPR: Ultimately what seemed like a delicate buildup amounts chiefly to a slow-moving movie unwilling to dig deeply into its themes and conflicts. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Much like "La Belle Noiseuse," the 1991 Jacques Rivette film it resembles, this contemplative drama washes over you. Read more

Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post: Dreamily pretty but insubstantial, Rochefort playing artistic brooding as almost pure grumpiness. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: 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. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: Partly about the importance of fresh observation, the film has little new to say about life, inspiration or art. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: 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. Read more

Eric Hynes, Time Out: [Trueba and Carriere] imbue the material with genuine feeling-exploring the melancholy of waning days and a defiantly naive belief in artistic transcendence. Read more

Zachary Wigon, Village Voice: Offers as generic a portrait of its central relationship as its title suggests. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: The film's insights about beauty are ... superficial. They amount to such commonplace observations as the fact that no two leaves are alike. Read more