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Presented for the first time in a newly restored version remastered from the original 35mm negative, Alain Robbe-Frillet's erotic, surreal classic is a precurser to David Lynch's world of enigmatic characters and dreamlike encounters. A man called Walter encounters a beautiful woman at a club but later finds her lying bound and bloodied in the road. He takes her to a nearby isolated villa where a sinister group of wealthy men in tuxedos are gathered and take a keen interest in the injured woman. The couple are gievn a room for the night where they are locked in. They make love but the following morning Walter wakes to find the woman gone, the villa a deserted ruin and blood on his neck. Did it happen or was it a dream? Nothing is quite what it seems...
Special Features
- Brand new restored version available for the first time
- Audio commentary by Roch C. Smith and Anthony N. Fragola. Roch C. Smith is the author of ‘Understanding Alain Robbe-Grillet’. He and Anthony N. Fragola co-authored ‘The Erotic Dream Machine: Interviews with Alain Robbe-Grillet on his films’.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
After encountering a beautiful woman one night, a man tries to track her down again on behalf of a mysterious organisation led by a motorcycle riding femme fatale.
The novelist Robbe-Grillet turned to directing films after the success of his collaboration with Resnais on Last Year at Marienbad (1961). His own films were not very well received, being seen as cinematically naive and amateurish, as well as politically incorrect due to his obsession with sado-masochism. But the films have become "cult" favourites, often cited as a precursor to David Lynch, and now they seem almost parodically "postmodern".
Basically Robbe-Grillet's films consist of a series of dream-like episodes in which stock characters and motifs are played out in various permutations, more like a set of musical variations than a linear logical plot. La Belle Captive is a later film (1983), by which point Robbe-Grillet seemed to be playing around with his favourite motifs in a rather half-hearted jokey way, lacking any real edge or erotic craziness - perhaps his style was better suited to a 60s / early 70s ambience. This film is OK but rather glossy & lightweight - the excessive reliance on declamatory voiceover betrays the fact that this is still a novelist trying his hand at directing and, although the film is loosely structured by high art references to Magritte & Schubert, the style bears a resemblance to the eurotica pulp films of Jess Franco & Jean Rollin et al, as well as curiously prefiguring pop video.
With Robbe-Grillet (who resisted DVD for various reasons) recently deceased, it seems likely that specialist labels will be eager to put out his films - they might be profitable, appealing not only to art-house audiences but to cult & eurotica fans. Hopefully the earlier movies will come out on DVD eventually, but La Belle Captive is a reasonably accessible film to start with.
The novelist Robbe-Grillet turned to directing films after the success of his collaboration with Resnais on Last Year at Marienbad (1961). His own films were not very well received, being seen as cinematically naive and amateurish, as well as politically incorrect due to his obsession with sado-masochism. But the films have become "cult" favourites, often cited as a precursor to David Lynch, and now they seem almost parodically "postmodern".
Basically Robbe-Grillet's films consist of a series of dream-like episodes in which stock characters and motifs are played out in various permutations, more like a set of musical variations than a linear logical plot. La Belle Captive is a later film (1983), by which point Robbe-Grillet seemed to be playing around with his favourite motifs in a rather half-hearted jokey way, lacking any real edge or erotic craziness - perhaps his style was better suited to a 60s / early 70s ambience. This film is OK but rather glossy & lightweight - the excessive reliance on declamatory voiceover betrays the fact that this is still a novelist trying his hand at directing and, although the film is loosely structured by high art references to Magritte & Schubert, the style bears a resemblance to the eurotica pulp films of Jess Franco & Jean Rollin et al, as well as curiously prefiguring pop video.
With Robbe-Grillet (who resisted DVD for various reasons) recently deceased, it seems likely that specialist labels will be eager to put out his films - they might be profitable, appealing not only to art-house audiences but to cult & eurotica fans. Hopefully the earlier movies will come out on DVD eventually, but La Belle Captive is a reasonably accessible film to start with.
9 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Beautiful film from the eighties by famous french novelist and part time director Alan Robbe-Grillet. Based on his own novel of the same titel which in itself is based on Rene Magritte's picture of yet again the same title which together with round about another 70 pictures by Magritte served as an illustration to Robbe-Grillet's novel of suspense ..... pictures the author selected as a skeleton for his novel before (sic!) he wrote it. So, if you go for the surrealistic stuff this is it!
The DVD by Kochlober gives no indication of any decoding and I played it on my region 2 machine without difficulties.
The DVD by Kochlober gives no indication of any decoding and I played it on my region 2 machine without difficulties.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I enjoy French cinema, but this film in my opionion is too out there to be viable entertainment, or to provide any worthy statement. I suggest it is simply pointless. I thought the summary sounded interesting, but am afraid it is misleading.
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