Nell is a 1994 drama film starring Jodie Foster as a young woman who has to face other people for the first time after being raised by her mother in an isolated cabin. The film was directed by Michael Apted, and was based on Mark Handley's play Idioglossia. The original music score is composed by Mark Isham. Foster was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for her role. She also won a Screen Actors Guild Award.

When stroke victim Violet Kellty dies in her home in the North Carolina forest, the town doctor, Jerry Lovell (Liam Neeson), finds a terrified young woman hiding in the rafters of the house. She speaks angrily and rapidly, but seems to have a language of her own. Looking at Violet's Bible, he finds a note asking whoever finds it to look after her daughter, Nell. The sheriff shows him a news clipping from which he surmises that Nell (Jodie Foster) is the dead woman’s daughter, conceived by a rapist.

Jerry seeks the help of Dr. Paula Olsen (Natasha Richardson), a researcher working with autistic children. Paula and her colleague Dr. Paley (Richard Libertini) are interested in studying a "wild child" and Dr. Paley continues to call her this even after studying films of her which show she does not fit the "wild child" profile. They immediately get a court order giving them permission to institutionalize Nell for "further study". Lovell is warned just in time to get his own lawyer and prevent it. After legal maneuvering, a judge gives Olsen and Lovell three months to interact with Nell and see what her actual needs are. Paula shows up on a houseboat with electronic equipment to monitor Nell's behavior; Jerry just sits in the house and listens to Nell.

Nell may refer to:

As a female given name, Nell may be short for:

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects. The process of filmmaking has developed into an art form and industry.

Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating – or indoctrinating – citizens. The visual elements of cinema give motion pictures a universal power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles that translate the dialogue into the language of the viewer.

Films are made up of a series of individual images called frames. When these images are shown rapidly in succession, a viewer has the illusion that motion is occurring. The viewer cannot see the flickering between frames due to an effect known as persistence of vision, whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Viewers perceive motion due to a psychological effect called beta movement.

Pierre Arditi was born on 1 December 1944 in Paris, child of the French painter Georges Arditi (fr), from Marseille, and a Belgian mother. He is an award-winning French film and stage actor. He is the brother of French actress Catherine Arditi.

Being born before 1967 from a Belgian mother married to a foreign citizen, he is a famous example of non-transmission of Belgian citizenship by mother's blood.

He has often played romantic, womanizing roles, similar to those played by Marcello Mastroianni.

In 1987 he won a César Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his role in Mélo, and in 1994, a César Award for Best Actor for his role in Smoking/No Smoking.

Although his work has primarily been in French film and theater, Arditi is known in the Anglophone world as the French voice of Christopher Reeve. Arditi dubbed Christopher Reeve on the French-language version of the three first Superman movies by Richard Donner and Richard Lester (See the French Wikipedia article on Pierre Arditi for more information). Because of the added footage in the DVD Special Edition of Donner's Superman, the movie had to be re-dubbed with a different voice actor, much to the chagrin of the generation of moviegoers who had grown up with the original soundtrack and identified Superman's voice with Arditi's. He also provided the French voice for Reeve in the comedy/whodunit Deathtrap. Finally, he was the voice of the documentary serie Untamed Africa, written and produced by Frederic Lepage.

Daniel Auteuil (French pronunciation: [danjɛl otøj]; born 24 January 1950) is a French film, television and theatre actor.

He was born in Algiers, French Algeria.

His starring role in the historical drama film Jean de Florette (1986) and its sequel Manon des Sources (1986) brought him international recognition. Auteuil has since become one of the best-known, best-paid and most popular actors in France. Through his appearances in films including the swashbuckler Le bossu (1997), the comedy The Closet (2001), the romantic comedy After You... (2003), the thriller Caché (2005) and the comedy My Best Friend (2006), he has since gained greater international recognition.

Auteuil has two daughters; Aurore Auteuil with his former partner, Anne Jousset, and Nelly from a ten-year relationship with actress Emmanuelle Béart, his co-star in the films A Heart in Winter and Manon des Sources (1986). He married Aude Ambroggi, a Corsican sculptor, on 22 July 2006 in Porto-Vecchio, Corsica.