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Reviews
La pianiste (2001)
Love is a strange thing?
Love is a strange thing and you often fall for the wrong person! They often say so lightly and unintelligently. However, this is exactly what I see from 'The piano teacher'. She knows she is falling love yet she is trying so hard to resist it, because she KNOWS it would not turn out to be the love she desires for. NEVER EVER! He will never love her the way she loves him and the way she wants to be loved. He is just another flamboyant boy and one day, he will dump her for another woman. The rest of the movie just shows her self-destructive behavior to destroy the increasing desire for love.
Pretty much the same common theme often shows in some French films. Human being's desire and fear to be loved and the misery of knowing there is no equally returned love.
Anatomie de l'enfer (2004)
Form 'Romance' to 'Anatomy of Hell', she is liberated!
One may not 'enjoy' the 'Anatomy of Hell' while seeing it in the cinema. It is a very tense experience and most scenes are surprisingly confronting. Go alone and see it anonymously as it may well be a part of human nature to deny such a deep cut- to-the-bone depict of the 'naked' human relations.
'Romance' is about how men treat women and 'Anatomy of Hell' is about how men 'view' and treat women. However, from 'Romance' to 'Anatomy of Hell', while men stay at same, SHE is liberated! She is no longer longing for the impossible of men recognition and driven to despair as in 'Romance', in 'Anatomy of Hell', she lies there and knows TOO WELL that all the sins in the world are caused by the view of her body (AS IF!).
From the high class sex scandals to the street gang rapes, the essence is the same. The very abstract notions of Catherine Breillat's view on misogyny only can be illustrated via the extreme excessive sex scenes. If the extreme sex scenes are taken out form both the 'Romance' and the 'Anatomy of Hell' (as they both have caused censorship controversial in Australia), would the same points be made? The answer is definitely NO.
'Romance' and 'Anatomy of Hell' are the only two films of Catherine Breillat's I have seen. I definitely will try to see the other films she ever made.
Monsieur Hire (1989)
Painting, love me Back?!
"Monsieur Hire" is brilliant in depicting the impossible communications between human beings. Picturing you in an art gallery and admiring this wonderful piece. It gives you an enormous feeling that you have never experienced. What would you do? Would you shout: 'Painting, love me back?!'
Monsieur Hire lives in darkness and probably never had loved until now. The girl, just like the painting in the art gallery, is irrelevant. There is ultimately no connections can be made. What's relevant is the journey Monsieur Hire had and once it is completed, it is time to say 'Thank you' with a full stop.