Sex Is Comedy

Catherine Breillat, France / Portugal, 2002
4 out of 4 stars

I wasn’t surprised to read a comment by the director to the effect that she made this film as an antidote to all those “making of” DVD featurettes, as that certainly struck me. I also found myself comparing this film to Lost in La Mancha; the difference between the two films is, quite obviously, the difference between reality and scripted television. At some point, you have to show people acting in order to just keep them from posing. Here, we get incredible insight into filmmaking, and specifically, into filming sex scenes, which, save for the History of Violence DVD, don’t generally show up in the “behind the scenes” special features.

Well, I do confess I have a penchant for “meta,” but I found this film to be very accessible and entertaining, and not even in a labored, self-consciously clever way, which is certainly a bit of what you expect in a film about filmmaking. It is very “French” in that there are a great deal of outlandish, yet occasionally compelling theories about how filmmaking (and even sexuality) “works,” but since the director doesn’t quite play herself (using an avatar instead), we’re left with a lot of choices (since I’m pretty sure she’s constantly contradicting herself). Apparently Catherine Breillat specializes in hard-to-watch films, but I’d definitely say this one doesn’t qualify. I really enjoyed the dialogue, the balance between the cinematic and the natural, the relationships between the director character and her assistant and actor, and so on. Highly recommended.

Source: Swank 35mm print
30 May, 7:30 PM