''Nénette'' is a 2010 French

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

about a 40-year-old female

orangutan Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the gen ...

living in the

menagerie A menagerie is a collection of captive animals, frequently exotic, kept for display; or the place where such a collection is kept, a precursor to the modern zoological garden. The term was first used in 17th-century France, in reference to the ...

of the Jardin des Plantes, (the

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoo ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

). The film, directed by

Nicolas Philibert Nicolas Philibert (; born 10 January 1951) is a French film director and actor. Biography Philibert's father was a film lecturer and he attended his talks in his youth. This encouraged him to embark on a film career. He started this with René ...

presents an intimate portrait of the ape, originally from

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java Isl ...

, who has spent most of her life in captivity. In accord with the

Cinéma vérité Cinéma vérité (, , ; "truthful cinema") is a style of documentary filmmaking developed by Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov's theory about Kino-Pravda. It combines improvisation with use of the camera to unveil truth or hi ...

style of Philibert's earlier works, the camera rests on Nénette and her son Tübo in their glass-fronted enclosure. We hear the conversations and see the reflections of the zoo visitors in the glass as they regard Nénette, a mother of four who has survived three mates.Nénette at the 53rd San Francisco International Film Festival
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Reception

Nenette has received positive reviews from critics, scoring 83% positive on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 7.6/10. Some positive reviews have praised how the film is shot centred on Nenette and raises questions about her life and captivity. Total Film magazine awarded Nenette 4 stars with reviewer Tom Dawson saying "If the tea-drinking Nénette remains an enigmatic figure, Philibert makes fascinatingly clear how we humans project our own feelings and thoughts onto her". Other good reviews have come from Empire magazine and Sight & Sound.

References

External links

* 2010 films 2010s French-language films French documentary films Films about apes 2010 documentary films 2010s French films Films directed by Nicolas Philibert {{France-documentary-film-stub