Anatomy of Hell (2004)

A woman employs a gay man to spend four nights at her house to watch her when she's "unwatchable".

Director:

Catherine Breillat

Writer:

Catherine Breillat (based on the novel "Pornocratie")

Stars:

Amira Casar, Rocco Siffredi, Alexandre Belin

1 win.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Amira Casar	...	The Woman
Rocco Siffredi	...	The Man
Alexandre Belin	...	Blow-job lover 1
Manuel Taglang	...	Blow-job lover 2
Jacques Monge	...	Man in bar
Claudio Carvalho	...	Boy with the Bird
Carolina Lopes	...	Little Girl
Diego Rodrigues	...	Little boy playing doctor (as 'Diogo Rodriques')
Diogo Rodriques	...	Boy Playing Doctor
João Marques	...	Boy Playing Doctor
Bruno Fernandes	...	Little boy playing doctor
Maria Edite Moreira	...	Pharmacist 1
Maria João Santos	...	Pharmacist 2
Catherine Breillat	...	Narrator (voice)

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

sex while asleep | copulation | female genitalia | female full frontal nudity | bare breasts | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Official Sites:

Distributor site Film site

Country:

France Portugal

Language:

French

Release Date:

28 January 2004 (France)

Also Known As:

Anatomy of Hell

Filming Locations:

Ericeira, Portugal

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,255, 26 September 2004

Gross USA:

$34,506

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$345,365

Company Credits

Production Co:

Flach Film, CB Films, Canal+

Technical Specs

Runtime:

77 min 87 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film explicitly states at the beginning that Amira Casar's sex scenes were done with a body double. Indeed, Casar allegedly told her male co-star Rocco Siffredi that she would not be having sex with him for the purposes of the film. Interestingly, Siffredi himself had a porn double for the opening gay fellatio scene. Despite being a porn star in real life and being very liberal in his sexual proclivities, gay man-on-man sex was apparently a step too far for the Italian.

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Quotes

Man in bar: As long as you fall in love with one of them, you lose , exhaustively lose!

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Connections

Referenced in Brows Held High: W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (2012)

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Soundtracks

Timeless Bass
Written by D'Julz Single Studio
Produced by D'Julz Single Studio
(C) 20:20 vision records

User Reviews

"Why Don't We Do It In The Road"

ANATOMY OF HELL is a brooding and vulgar scrutiny of the base nature of Human Sexuality. Catherine Breillat attempts to blend a thoughtfully philosophical film with the shocking details hardcore pornography, and falls far short of the mark. I did not have as much of a problem with the disturbing sexual images, as I did with the absurd dialogue. Nobody talks like this, and it carried the film beyond pretension and into preposterousness. The plot is straightforward, yet odd. A woman visits a gay nightclub, and attempts to slash her wrists in the toilet, however her motive is never revealed. She is rescued by a man who passed her on a stairway in the club, and later she asks the man if she may buy his time for the next several days while she reveals herself to him during her most private moments. What follows is a series of turgid and sophomoric discussions which attempt to elucidate the various differences between Men and Women. Even if these two individuals were more articulate and believable, the director does not show us why these characters are worth our attention. What enduring truths could this gay man possibly have to say about masculinity, and why should we care about the observations of this obviously troubled young woman? ANATOMY OF HELL demonstrates our animal nature as sexual beings in exacting detail, however the opaque reflections of the two central characters ring false, and deaden the overall impact of the work. Many would welcome a cinematic journey in which honest philosophical insight is injected into the very artificial and contrived genre of pornography, but ANATOMY OF HELL is neither honest nor insightful, but only salacious.