NELLY

The first things everybody noticed about Nelly Arcan were her sky-blue eyes and gorgeous figure. Yet she was a serious writer who felt a constant, humiliating pull between her appearance and the substance of her work. Nelly’s first novel Whore caused a sensation in the French-Canadian literary world in 2001. Detailing the life of a prostitute named Cynthia, it was based on Nelly’s experience as a sex worker. Nelly wrote semi-autobiographical and scandalous novels, short stories, opinion pieces, and columns—as well as a coffee-table book on beauty. Director Anne Émond presents Nelly as a composite of the four types of women she tried to be: glamour girl, writer, junkie, and whore. Convinced she’s no good, Nelly seeks out humiliation. Inhaling reviews of her “performances” as a hooker and a writer, she both loathes and loves being judged. Inspired by the life and work of Nelly Arcan, NELLY is a kaleidoscopic study of loneliness and female sexuality. Mylène Mackay’s performance as Nelly is astonishing. (In French with subtitles) —B.B.