HOME |  CULT MOVIES | COMPETITIONS | ADVERTISE |  CONTACT US |  ABOUT US
 
 
 
Newest Reviews
American Fiction
Poor Things
Thunderclap
Zeiram
Legend of the Bat
Party Line
Night Fright
Pacha, Le
Kimi
Assemble Insert
Venus Tear Diamond, The
Promare
Beauty's Evil Roses, The
Free Guy
Huck and Tom's Mississippi Adventure
Rejuvenator, The
Who Fears the Devil?
Guignolo, Le
Batman, The
Land of Many Perfumes
Cat vs. Rat
Tom & Jerry: The Movie
Naked Violence
Joyeuses Pacques
Strangeness, The
How I Became a Superhero
Golden Nun
Incident at Phantom Hill
Winterhawk
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
Maigret Sets a Trap
B.N.A.
Hell's Wind Staff, The
Topo Gigio and the Missile War
Battant, Le
Penguin Highway
Cazadore de Demonios
Snatchers
Imperial Swordsman
Foxtrap
   
 
Newest Articles
3 From Arrow Player: Sweet Sugar, Girls Nite Out and Manhattan Baby
Little Cat Feat: Stephen King's Cat's Eye on 4K UHD
La Violence: Dobermann at 25
Serious Comedy: The Wrong Arm of the Law on Blu-ray
DC Showcase: Constantine - The House of Mystery and More on Blu-ray
Monster Fun: Three Monster Tales of Sci-Fi Terror on Blu-ray
State of the 70s: Play for Today Volume 3 on Blu-ray
The Movie Damned: Cursed Films II on Shudder
The Dead of Night: In Cold Blood on Blu-ray
Suave and Sophisticated: The Persuaders! Take 50 on Blu-ray
Your Rules are Really Beginning to Annoy Me: Escape from L.A. on 4K UHD
A Woman's Viewfinder: The Camera is Ours on DVD
Chaplin's Silent Pursuit: Modern Times on Blu-ray
The Ecstasy of Cosmic Boredom: Dark Star on Arrow
A Frosty Reception: South and The Great White Silence on Blu-ray
You'll Never Guess Which is Sammo: Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon on Blu-ray
Two Christopher Miles Shorts: The Six-Sided Triangle/Rhythm 'n' Greens on Blu-ray
Not So Permissive: The Lovers! on Blu-ray
Uncomfortable Truths: Three Shorts by Andrea Arnold on MUBI
The Call of Nostalgia: Ghostbusters Afterlife on Blu-ray
Moon Night - Space 1999: Super Space Theater on Blu-ray
Super Sammo: Warriors Two and The Prodigal Son on Blu-ray
Sex vs Violence: In the Realm of the Senses on Blu-ray
What's So Funny About Brit Horror? Vampira and Bloodbath at the House of Death on Arrow
Keeping the Beatles Alive: Get Back
   
 
  Bluebeard Even murderous misogynists have a sensitive side
Year: 2009
Director: Catherine Breillat
Stars: Dominique Thomas, Lola Créton, Daphné Baiwir, Marilou Lopes-Benites, Lola Giovannetti, Farida Khelfa, Isabelle Lapouge, Suzanne Foulquier, Laure Lapeyre, Luc Bailly, Adrien Ledoux
Genre: Drama, Romance, Weirdo, FantasyBuy from Amazon
Rating:  6 (from 1 vote)
Review: Two little girls playing in an attic, prim Marie-Anne (Lola Giovannetti) and her precocious kid sister Catherine (Marilou Lopes-Benites) recount the classic fairytale of Bluebeard. In the story, two similarly-named teenage siblings, rebellious Marie-Catherine (Lola Créton) and her demure, older sister Anne (Daphné Baiwir) are cruelly expelled from a convent shortly after discovering their father has died. Returning home they face mounting debts and a forced to sell almost all their possessions. Anne longs to marry into wealth but when a proposal arrives from fearsome local lord, Bluebeard (Dominique Thomas), who is rumoured to have killed his many previous wives, she is repulsed. Instead, Marie-Catherine attracts Bluebeard’s eye and appears genuinely smitten with the sad, lonely, older man. They marry and an unlikely, though chaste romance ensues. One day Bluebeard leaves his castle on business, entrusting the keys to his chambers to Marie-Catherine, on the promise she will not enter his forbidden room. Inevitably, curiosity gets the better of her...

Contemplating the sexual allure of danger, violence and death, Charles Perrault’s dark fairytale has been a cinematic staple going all the way back to Georges Méliès and his silent short Barbe Bleue (1902). Over the years the story has resurfaced in either overt adaptations like Edgar G. Ulmer’s cult favourite Bluebeard (1944) and the star-studded disaster that was Edward Dmytryk’s Bluebeard (1972) or thinly veiled reinterpretations such as Fritz Lang’s Secret Beyond the Door (1948). Aside from Méliès, some other notable French filmmakers tackled the tale including historical swashbuckler specialist Christian-Jacque in 1951 and Nouvelle Vague auteur Claude Chabrol with Landru (1963).

Here, the divisive Catherine Breillat delivers her own, typically idiosyncratic, take on the familiar story, cross-cutting between two narratives. On the one hand, a somewhat gloomy, austere yet emotionally resonant adaptation of the fairytale itself, intercut with a semi-autobiographical framing story that treads into rather troubling waters given the climactic fate of one sibling. Although somewhat awkwardly integrated into the main story, given Breillat cross-cuts between both narratives for some time before establishing that Catherine and Marie-Anne are actually reading the Bluebeard story, the framing device is not without its charms. As the two girls continue to debate the messages inherent in Perrault’s text, much amusement arises from little Catherine’s precocious musings including a semi-improvised sequence where she insists “homosexuality” is the correct term for when a man and woman are in love!

Despite Breillat’s past output of confrontational, some would say scandal-mongering, art-porn fare including Romance (1999) and À Ma Soeur! (2001), she surprisingly downplays the sexual undertones and reinterprets the story as a tragic romance. As portrayed by Dominique Thomas, Bluebeard is a complex character, reflecting the ambiguities inherent in his historical inspiration: the mass murderer Gilles De Rais, who was conversely a close friend of Joan of Arc. He is a self-confessed monster yet equally melancholy, wounded, world-weary and sincere. His attitude towards Catherine is largely paternal and kindly while the fourteen year old heroine exerts some control over their relationship, denying him sex and politely demanding her own room until she comes of age. However, Breillat’s reading remains psychologically shallow with no attempt to rationalise the title character’s homicidal impulses. The film is riddled with inconsistencies and the underlining tension between Marie-Catherine and her sister Anne goes unresolved, a misstep given the latter’s role in instigating the climax. And yet aspects of the film do engage and Breillat draws some exceptional performances particularly from her quartet of young leads.

Reviewer: Andrew Pragasam

 

This review has been viewed 4411 time(s).

As a member you could Rate this film

 
Review Comments (0)


Untitled 1

Login
  Username:
 
  Password:
 
   
 
Forgotten your details? Enter email address in Username box and click Reminder. Your details will be emailed to you.
   

Latest Poll
Which star probably has psychic powers?
Laurence Fishburne
Nicolas Cage
Anya Taylor-Joy
Patrick Stewart
Sissy Spacek
Michelle Yeoh
Aubrey Plaza
Tom Cruise
Beatrice Dalle
Michael Ironside
   
 
   

Recent Visitors
Darren Jones
Mark Le Surf-hall
Enoch Sneed
  Louise Hackett
Andrew Pragasam
Mary Sibley
Graeme Clark
  Desbris M
   

 

Last Updated: