French drama, known in English as Playing With Fire. It was written and directed by the noted intellectual and pervert, Alain Robbe-Grillet, author of the notorious bore-fest, Last Year at Marienbad (1961). His works are cerebral and often dull, but they are also intentionally transgressive and sometimes sexually explicit. He was really into bondage and sadism. For reasons mysterious to me, he was popular with the counterculture in the hippie era and was a Grove Press darling.
There are many filmmakers who make incomprehensible films, but his works are so non-linear that you can’t even create a comprehensible summary. Imagine if Godard was a masturbating madman, and you have Alain Robbe-Grillet.
Some stuff happens in this film, and then some vaguely related stuff happens, followed by some unrelated stuff. Then there’s a mental health clinic which is actually a sex dungeon, a hallway with too many doors. You know – usual avant-garde crap.
I guess I’m forever stuck in the derriere-garde.
Despite what I wrote above, this film is worth a look, since it contains an all-time championship full-frontal performance from Christine Boisson.
“Imagine if Godard was a masturbating madman” Hell, I got into foreign films cuz of First Name Carmen & his gym segment from Aria