content: I try to watch this movie once a year. It is a gorgeous, slow moving thing. The better part of the movie is taken up with the battle between Frehofer and the form he is trying to bring to life on the canvas, with Emmanuelle Beart as his model. He gives up... she gives up... but they plow on through. The story is unsullied by any erotic (or at least, overtly erotic) connection between the two. But there is none of the neurotic histrionics and unrequited sacrifices of the usual films about artist: there is just the hard, greuling, work of having a vision and getting it right.This is freely based on the story "The Unknown Masterpiece" by Balzac. If only more movies "freely based" on a story could be as fine as this one. Knowing the story, which is a short novella, may actually add to the appreciation of the film and the character of Frenhofer.