Betty Blue (1986)
Directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix
* * ½
When we first meet Zorg
(Jean-Hugues Anglade), a handyman working various jobs on a beach, he has known
Betty (Beatrice Dalle) for only a week, and they are already in the midst of an
intimate and passionate love affair (they make love every evening). Betty is
especially in love with Zorg, to the point of mania – she completely trashes
Zorg’s bungalow in her frustrations when he tolerates his boss’s alleged
outrageous demands. It is here that she discovers Zorg’s gift for writing. They
abandon the bungalow and the beach (in a rather heated fashion) and set out to
see what life will bring to their intense love for each other. However, things
only become more complicated as Betty’s manic episodes become more frequent,
steadily heading toward the path of complete madness.
Most every scene that involved
Betty and Zorg were the best moments of the film, as the intimacy between them
was truly something special. That combined with a frank depiction of nudity and
sex made for a beautifully erotic bond that was a joy to behold. The overall
portrayal of the madness of passion was also riveting to watch, not just the
passion for each other but the passion for expression as well (an IMDb user
pondered that everything going on was in Zorg’s mind in development of a
literary work, and it kind of makes sense). I would also like to point out the
really interesting color palette, which had this zany vibrancy to it, just like
the character of Betty. Oh, and it should go without saying that Beatrice Dalle
is absolutely fantastic.
All that said, I wasn’t
completely invested in the film: Betty
Blue was initially released in a two-hour runtime, but a 2009 director’s
cut added an entire extra hour of material. I watched the latter, as I tend to
prefer the longer cuts of films, but here is a case where I would like to see
the shorter theatrical cut before giving a confident opinion on the film. This
director’s cut really seemed to just kind of dwell at times, and I found myself
growing disinterested during fragments of the film, as there were countless
moments that added nothing to the fascinating chemistry between Zorg and Betty.
I will eventually get around to the theatrical cut – we’ll see what I have to
say by then.
The Passenger (1975)
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
* * ½
While wandering the arid
Sahara Desert shooting a documentary, David Locke (Jack Nicholson) stumbles
across the corpse of Englishman and acquaintance Robertson (Charles Mulvehill).
Exhausted and burnt out with his own life, with Robertson’s identification
papers in front of him ready for tampering, Locke switches identities with
Robertson. A new identity, a fresh start, but life seems to continue on with
the same disillusion and drab inertia that Locke so experienced in his previous
life. Things become even more complicated when he discovers that he has filled
the shoes of an arms dealer.
Roger Ebert once said of
Antonioni (possibly my favorite filmmaker), in perhaps the finest description
of his work: “There is an emptiness in the films of Michelangelo Antonioni that
the director seems to love more than the people who intrude upon it.” This is
not a condescension, as Antonioni’s most common themes include existential
alienation. The Passenger is no
exception to this practice, but I must exist that I wasn’t too compelled by
this one. Granted, Antonioni is one of those filmmakers that you really need to
be in the right mood for (L’avventura was
a slog my first time – second time, it was a masterpiece), but The Passenger just wasn’t too
interesting.
On a visual level, Antonioni’s
films are always something to look forward to, but in The Passenger, the cinematography was quite dull (then again, the
desert isn’t much to look at), though I must admit that some of the technical
trickery was quite remarkable – keep a lookout for an incredible transition to
a flashback early in the movie. I can fully admit that most my criticisms could
very potentially wane with a second watch, as there was some poignancy here and
there, but what gets zero excuse is the horrendous dialogue, which is often
awkward as hell, clunky, jumps straight to the point in an overly-obscure
manner. The Passenger isn’t
necessarily a terrible movie, but it was certainly a let down from one of the
finest filmmakers who ever lived.
Trouble Every Day (2001)
Directed by Claire Denis
*
The Browns are a newly married
couple who travel to Paris for their honeymoon. Almost immediately upon
arrival, Shane Brown (Vincent Gallo) is desperately trying to get in touch with
Leo (Alex Descas), a general practitioner, who has inexplicably up and left –
we actually see Leo in the film’s opening moments, as he was assisting a
mysteriously sinister woman (Beatrice Dalle) in burying bodies, followed by
locking her up in a home (she is eventually broken out). At the center of
everything is slow-burn unease and implications of romantic and sexual turmoil.
Or at least that was what I
was able to gather from what I saw. I actually had to refer to Wikipedia and
IMDb for some assistance, but that won’t matter much, because I absolutely
hated this movie. Some might dismiss my vitriol simply because “I didn’t get
it”. I assure you that I don’t care whether I “get it” or not (remember that Eraserhead is one of my all-time
favorites). All I care about is whether I’m compelled at all or not, and Trouble Every Day crash-landed as far as
trying to engage me, with its empty yet ironically and messy narrative, which I
can’t help but feel is intentional (lost points for pretension). There’s no
interesting cinematography. No interesting music. No interesting characters.
Not even the always-striking screen presences of Vincent Gallo, Alex Descas,
and Beatrice Dalle could make this worth watching.
That said, there are two
moments of poignancy, in all of their grotesqueness (if you’ve seen the film,
you know exactly what scenes I’m talking about). While these brutal scenes
don’t feel exploitive, they’re still not worth it, even for a film that runs at
only 101 minutes (it felt like an insufferable eternity). Invest the time (and
more) in a better film on sex and relationships, like Last Tango in Paris. Trouble Every Day is my first experience with
Claire Denis, a world-renowned filmmaker, and this is often said unlike
anything else she’s ever done. I can only hope going through her filmography
will only go uphill from here, because this film just plain sucked. Honestly,
the more I think about it, this is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen.
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