Quickcard Review Bluebeard (Barbe Bleue)

Directed by: Catherine Breillat Cast: Lola Créton, Daphné Baiwir, Dominique Thomas Running Time:  1 hr 20 min Rating: unrated

COMPLETE COVERAGE - 33rd Portland International Film Festival

PLOT: Two little girls read the horrifying fairytale "Bluebeard"  while hidden away in an attic, framing the story that's being lived by two sisters in 18th century France.

WHO'S IT FOR? Do you like seeing fairytales re-imagined, like the films In the Company of Wolves and Freeway?  Then this should be right up your alley.

OVERALL

Breillat's 1999 film Romance traumatized me in a good way; I loved it, but it was a horrible spectacle to sit through.  If I had this as a DVD from Netflix it would have taken me forever to watch it, but as I had to write a review I didn't have the same luxury of procrastination.  Turns out I didn't need it; Bluebeard isn't a harrowing experience, rather it's a lovely, and yes, sometimes dark and horrible, retelling of a classic fairytale.  The story of "Bluebeard" fascinated me as a child; he's a rich, ugly man who marries a beautiful woman without money.  But he has a dark secret: his previous seven wives have disappeared under mysterious circumstances.  The film stays close to that story, but fleshes it out by making it a love story, as well as a story about the love between sisters.  The sisters within the story love and annoy one another, the way sisters do.  But it's the sisters reading the story, Catherine and Marie-Anne, who were most interesting to me.  The children give incredibly natural performances, saying things to irk one another and acting like kids do.  But it's also their reaction to the story, one of the darkest fairytales there is, that teaches the lesson that to be a good wife, you must obey.  Sure, in the fairytale there's a reprieve, but I was never sure how this version would end.

Breillat's an interesting filmmaker, and her story doesn't follow conventional patterns.  She makes some interesting choices in the narrative, and I feel like I need a little longer to digest the ending.  But this is a good film.  Bluebeard is the story of children moving from innocence to experience.  It's sensual, but not sexual; a simple story that grows increasingly complex as it unwinds.  I wouldn't say it's her best work, but Bluebeard adds another interesting piece to Breillat's canon.

FINAL SCORE: 7/10