Very few reviewers—your humble New Cult Canonizer excluded—had kind things to say about Claire Denis' grisly erotic horror film. But as the Denis cult has grown, so have critical reassessments.
It certainly helped Denis execute her vision that she had on hand Beatrice Dalle, who had cultivated a voracious and heedless persona both onscreen and off. "Feral" was an oft-used adjective to describe her in those days -- she really was unlike anybody else.
Scott, given how much audiences turned away from this, I have no idea what my personal response would be, but the way you write about it here, with such affection, makes it sound like a fantastic concept. "Here’s a film where subtle shifts in breathing patterns turn humans into animals, as soft huffs of pleasure lead to the harder, deeper inhalations of the violently possessed. " this phrase alone is a great movie in the making
So kind of you to say. I hope I conveyed in my piece that the film DOES have a couple of extremely difficult scenes to watch, which is why it’s included in the Shudder series. But Denis is one-of-a-kind. There just isn’t a movie quite comparable to this one.
Fucking love this movie! I think I saw this, Friday Night, and Beau Travail all within weeks of each other sometime in the mid 2000s (all on DVD), and eyes were popping out of my head each time. That scene where Dalle paints the wall with blood — such an incredible moment. Very happy to be reading about it now.
It certainly helped Denis execute her vision that she had on hand Beatrice Dalle, who had cultivated a voracious and heedless persona both onscreen and off. "Feral" was an oft-used adjective to describe her in those days -- she really was unlike anybody else.
Absolutely. A persuasive turn to say the least!
Scott, given how much audiences turned away from this, I have no idea what my personal response would be, but the way you write about it here, with such affection, makes it sound like a fantastic concept. "Here’s a film where subtle shifts in breathing patterns turn humans into animals, as soft huffs of pleasure lead to the harder, deeper inhalations of the violently possessed. " this phrase alone is a great movie in the making
So kind of you to say. I hope I conveyed in my piece that the film DOES have a couple of extremely difficult scenes to watch, which is why it’s included in the Shudder series. But Denis is one-of-a-kind. There just isn’t a movie quite comparable to this one.
Fucking love this movie! I think I saw this, Friday Night, and Beau Travail all within weeks of each other sometime in the mid 2000s (all on DVD), and eyes were popping out of my head each time. That scene where Dalle paints the wall with blood — such an incredible moment. Very happy to be reading about it now.