Thursday, October 20, 2011

Anatomy of Hell (2004)

Anatomy of Hell • Anatomie de l'enfer (2004)


Genre: Drama
Director: Catherine Breillat
Starring: Amira Casar, Rocco Siffredi
Language: French
Duration: 73 min.
Rating: 5.0  

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



Anatomy of Hell is a film written and directed by Catherine Breillat, based on her novel titled Pornocratie.  It premiered at the 2004 Rotterdam International Film Festival.

I am a fan of Breillat, because of her willingness to explore territory in cinema that no one else will. Sometimes she manages to deliver a great film amidst her unique brand of provocation and boundary crossing, like Fat Girl or 36 Fillette, this isn't one of those times.  Starting with an unlikely scenario, coupled with some horribly unnatural dialogue and out-of-place narration by the director herself.  Followed by an unflinching series of highly explicit images, which I'm sure were intended to provoke philosophical thought, but only work to shock and disgust the audience.  Results in an extremely difficult to watch mess of a film that makes it's short running time feel like hours. 

Trust me, just avoid this one. 

Bonjour Tristesse









14 comments:

Hoi-Ming Ng said...

Avoid? You got it, boss. haha I don't think I've ever seen a 5.0 here.

Hermann Rorschach said...

Are those the "unwatchable" parts her character refers to?  Also, is the man being gay relevant, or does that just make her feel safer?

Hasidic Plubmer said...

Do you know what's hell? Do you REALLY wanna know? That girl with a hairy armpit on the first photo :/

Steven Flores said...

I've only seen one film by Breillat in "Romance" which I like a lot though they're not easy to watch.  I want to see this because I heard that it's all about the scariest place in the world from a man's perspective in

Bonjour Tristesse said...

My main problem with it, is that the story and characters hold zero interest, making the entire film a pointless exercise.  I think the director has a point, in that we really shouldn't find perfectly natural bodily functions shocking or disgusting, but she delivers it in the least interesting way possible.

Tony Van Helsing said...

Looks like one of those meandering French films where everyone mopes about smoking Gitanes and sulking.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

I'd love to hear what you think of it afterwards.

Toto said...

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d_4 said...

I trust you.


There's this guy I know who recommended me a piece of crap film though, I'll recommend this one back to him.

The Angry Vegetarian said...

I watched this on Netflix a few months ago and couldn't agree more with it being a "mess of a film." I'm all for non-censorship and don't get shocked or immediately hate something because it has something "graphic" in it. But when I see things like this I feel like it's thrown in there just for shock value to TRY to set itself apart. It shouldn't be that hard to do if you really know how.

Michaël Parent said...

I saved it on my tv receptor last week. But I think I'll give it a try... I kinda get intrigued when a film gets baaad reviews...

The Angry Lurker said...

Only heard and seen Rocco in his porn career.

Shubhajit Lahiri said...

This sure was one astoundingly bad movie, and certainly to be avoided at all costs. As you noted, I too saw the movie courtesy the director, but it was so atrocious that I rendered speechless for a while.

The Reel Foto said...

gonna avoid it then. ;)

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