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Movies / On DVD / Betty Blue
Betty Blue

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Betty Blue (1986)

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Reviews Counted:25

Fresh:19

Rotten:6

Average Rating:6.4/10

Runtime: 3 hrs 5 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Synopsis: A shocking and offbeat story of two French lovers, Zorg (Jean-Hugues Anglade) and Betty (Beatrice Dalle), who fall into a deeply erotic and all-encompassing relationship. Zorg is a simple repairman... A shocking and offbeat story of two French lovers, Zorg (Jean-Hugues Anglade) and Betty (Beatrice Dalle), who fall into a deeply erotic and all-encompassing relationship. Zorg is a simple repairman in his mid-thirties who lives a relatively dull life in a remote, weathered shack until he meets Betty, a sexy, mercurial younger woman who challenges his way of thinking and forces him to change his life. When Betty and Zorg are not having wild and uninhibited sex (and joyously traipsing around naked), Zorg is writing his novel, an unpublished masterwork that Betty discovers and vehemently champions. Betty, prone to violent fits of passionate rage, attacks Zorg's boss and burns their shack down, leaving Zorg no choice but to join her on a series of spirited adventures. They move in with Betty's best friend and her boyfriend and for a brief time live a happy bohemian lifestyle, wild and crazy in love. But as the film progresses, Betty's mental illness becomes more apparent, she lives in a fitful manic world of passionate highs and lows while Zorg desperately attempts to coddle and comfort her. Finally, the lovers start over in a dreamy rural town, hoping to live a normal life, but Betty's fantasy world encroaches on her reality as she slowly spirals out of control in this intense story of love and lust, based on the novel by Philippe Djian. [More]

Starring: Beatrice Dalle, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Gerard Darmon, Clementine Celarie

Starring: Beatrice Dalle, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Gerard Darmon, Clementine Celarie, Jacques Mathou

Director: Jean-Jacques Beineix

Director: Jean-Jacques Beineix
Screenwriter: Jean-Jacques Beineix
Producer: Claudie Ossard
Composer: Gabriel Yared

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Betty Blue

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

If Dalle never made anything of note again -- and she didn't -- then this alone would be enough to stake her claim as an icon of late 20th century cinema.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
06/08/09
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Beineix's film is awash with the humour and cool of his debut, Diva, but lacks the cohesion to sustain its weighty ambition.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
06/08/09
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Flows in a lambent pop style, warm to the touch and scarily intimate

Full Review Source: CinePassion | comment Comment
11/15/09
Fernando F. Croce
Fernando F. Croce
CinePassion

There can be beauty in tragedy, particularly when the key ingredient is the same in both

Full Review Source: Movie Habit | comment Comment
10/18/09
Marty Mapes
Marty Mapes
Movie Habit

A playful, meandering, somewhat confusing tale that hangs together as a portrait of demented love.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
07/24/09
Colin Covert
Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune

Rarely seen in this country in the intervening 23 years, Dalle gives one of the all-time-great performances as Betty.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
07/24/09
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

It's a passionate love story executed in a dull fashion.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
06/26/09
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Beinex's Oscar-nominated, quintessentially French amour fou tells of a love relationship that descends into madness, splendidly played by Dalle as the free-spirited troubled femme; one scene of self-inflicted violence is truly tough to watch.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
06/20/09
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

Occasionally drags and meanders, but it boasts an impressive visual style and a radiant, charismatic performance by the ultra-sexy Béatrice Dalle.

Full Review Source: NYC Movie Guru | comment Comment
06/17/09
Avi Offer
Avi Offer
NYC Movie Guru

If Betty Blue feasts on the bodies of its leads, it’s this director’s cut that fully establishes the movie’s artistic bona fides.

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
06/10/09
Joshua Rothkopf
Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out New York

Curvy, ripe Dalle, only 21 at the time and in her first screen role, completely commits to the part.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
06/10/09
Melissa Anderson
Melissa Anderson
Village Voice

The best thing about the film is the pouty, 21-year-old Dalle.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
06/08/09
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The movie was colorful and swirling and oppressive all at once, and in 1991, Beineix recut it not to slim it down but to add a florid third hour.

Full Review Source: New York Magazine | comment Comment
06/08/09
David Edelstein
David Edelstein
New York Magazine

Dalle, a model, makes a moving debut as the desperate baby-doll who fails to mold reality to her own conceptions of happiness. Anglade is more introvertedly affecting as the lucidly casual, but devoted Zorg.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
03/26/09
Variety Staff
Variety Staff
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Devastating.

comment Comment
10/25/07
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

No review available.

comment Comment
01/17/05
Philip Martin
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Beineix's villagescapes and countryside vistas are hard to resist, and the dichotomy of a stone cold looney prancing around them only makes the tableau more curiously complete

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
10/29/04
Christopher Null
Christopher Null
Filmcritic.com

Centers on the difficulties of living with a sexually free spirit.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
08/26/04
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

No review available.

comment Comment
07/02/04
Daniel M. Kimmel
Daniel M. Kimmel
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

No review available.

comment Comment
05/23/04
Andy Klein
Andy Klein
Los Angeles CityBeat
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
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