Betty Blue - 37,2 Grad am Morgen

The Betty of the title is like a shooting star; she runs hot and bright, but she's burning up. _Betty Blue_ chronicles a torrid affair between a waitress and a handyman, initially in a broken down seaside resort. Betty is both passionate and unstable, almost childlike, and initially it is outsiders who bear the brunt of her anger - the piggish owner of the seaside bungalows, for example, or the playboy publisher who rejects Zorg's novel.

However, as Betty becomes more unstable and begins her descent into insanity, this rage is increasingly turned inward into self-punishing and self-mutilating actions. The same intensity that drives her sexuality and her love for Zorg is, ultimately, her downfall.

Over the course of the movie, which is quite long (I saw the 178 minute director's cut), Zorg goes to increasingly frantic lengths both to please Betty and to protect her from herself. In this regard, certainly, Betty and Zorg are almost identical, both going to extremes, in their own ways, to defend their relationship from outside interference.

As well as providing a narrative that may be read and interpreted on several levels, _Betty Blue_ is an exceptionally beautiful film in terms of cinematography and mise en scene. Colour is used to breathtaking effect - the blue floors of the piano shop, the yellow car, the yellow lighting which makes it seem as though, regardless of time, it's always afternoon twilight. Landscapes, city scenes, interiors are all set up and filmed beautifully.

A tale of love, sex and obsession not to be missed.