A man rescues a woman from a suicide attempt in a gay nightclub. Walking the streets together, she propositions him: She'll pay him to visit her at her isolated house for four consecutive nights. There he will silently watch her. He's reluctant, but agrees. As the four nights progress, they become more intimate with each other, and a mutual fascination/revulsion develops. By the end of the four-day "contract", these two total strangers will have had a profound impact on each other.
25 Nov Anatomy of Hell (2004)
The Grace of Stupidity, the Beauty of Blood
Some of us are more nimble than others at being and some of us hide it well, but it is the human condition to be stupid. We all are and that’s that. The best we can hope for is to find those that do it gracefully.
Make no mistake, Breillat is stupid. She would bring any gathering down and to have her as a friend would be a burden. And yet she has given me images that I carry around (with other gems) to serve as touchstones into the world of women.
Her films are poorly composed but there really are some cinematically perfect moments in every one.
So what you want to do is watch this (or any of them) and avoid at all costs any of her own interviews. I know what she intends. It is uninteresting, not worth the effort. The dialog is similarly a waste of effort, but you cannot get to the images without them, so drudge through it.
The reason is that she knows the power of vision and she moves the imagination of image with grace. All the droll theorising I can forgive, even credit as bravery because she knows how the eye and mind work as tractors to the soul
There’s a truly disturbing act of cowardice though at the very beginning, before the credits. We are told that the more “disgusting” things weren’t actually done by the actress, but by a body double. Now why?
You might want to see this before “Loss of Sexual Innocence“ which is equally banal in the same way, and as powerful.
Posted in 2006
Ted’s Evaluation — 3 of 3: Worth watching.
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