TidalBasinTavern

This review is for the uncut version of this film, complete with elderly gentleman having his member nailed to a piece of wood. It's obvious that for the more serious S&M scenes a body double was used for Bulle Ogier (the body double has hands that look about 20 years older than Ogier's and she was probably a professional dominatrix). Consequently it feels more like documentary footage shot in a dungeon. Combined with the real and graphic footage in the abattoir it all feels gratuitous and clearly thrown in just to 'sex' the whole thing up a bit. I'm sure at the time the shock value of this film was enough. But it's not aged particularly well. For instance, the scene at the châteaux loses it bite as it's immediately obvious to the modern viewer what's going on.

I watch a lot of art-house films, often from the 60s and 70s, and with depressing regularity the female characters get slapped about by their boyfriends. When Olivier tries that with Ariane (Bulle Ogier) she head-butts him. I don't think I can ever remember seeing a leading lady head-butting someone outside of a martial arts film. It's genuinely a shocking scene.

Despite all this if you strip all the exploitative material out you're left with quite a nice romantic comedy. Olivier (Gérard Depardieu) is such a buffoon, that despite the occasional thuggish outburst is rather non-threatening: the perfect romantic comedy staple.

The final reveal as to who Gautier is rather anti-climactic. I guess it's meant to be a fantasy within a fantasy sort of thing.

The best thing for me in this film were the Karl Largerfeld costumes.

Overall: 6/10.

This review is for the 1:49 (109 minute) version of the film in Japanese with English subtitles. I believe this is the 'uncut' version. I was quite worried before watching this film about what I was letting myself in for after having read some of the reviews. I feared it might be something like some of Pasolini's films. I needn't have worried. Admittedly you might not want to show it to your maiden aunt.

It's a sort of art house version of Showgirls (1995). The hallucination scenes reminds me a bit of the Mandrax infused scenes in Celine and Julie go boating (1974). So as a bit of trivia I'm guessing that is the drug Ai takes.

It's supposedly a warts and all look at the life of a Tokyo prostitute, Ai, who specialises in S & M set at the time of the economic bubble. Obviously this could just be a flimsy excuse for a lot of gratuitous footage under the guise of Art. I'm inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt. It's never going to be a great film, but at least it does pass the Bechdel test.

Films with a similar idea that spring to mind are Klute (1971) and Strella (2009). Both of which seemed like a more realistic portrayal, particularly Strella.I may be being a little unfair since some of it could have got lost in translation.

The producers of this series were clearly masochists. Why else would you cast a famous US movie actress, set the production in the rural north west of England, have the said actress play an Irish traveller (Mia) who is an assassin, and for good measure make the character trans. The logistics of making this production happen are mind boggling.

Having said all that it actually works. I enjoyed the entire series, frustrating as it was in parts. The cliff-hanger ending was possibly one of the most frustrating bits of TV I've ever watched; knowing that the second series hadn't been commissioned. It is sort of Emmerdale (British rural soap opera) meets Snatch meets the Crying Game.

Obviously the series isn't meant to be taken too seriously so I'm not going to point out the myriad of plot holes. There was just too much time taken up with shots of the countryside which got very tedious and too much time focusing Mia's family. It felt as if many of the characters in it would have been much more at home in a soap opera like Emmerdale and they were out acted by Chloe Sevigny.

I also think Chloe Sevigny portrayal of Mia is flawed. She seems more like Hayley from Coronation Street (another British soap). She is not street-wise enough to be a hit-man; someone who might be called the apex predator of the criminal underworld. I think the producers should have watched some modern LGBT cinema. For instance Mina Orfanou in Strella (2009), who plays the trans character of the title. Actually, I think Mia wouldn't last 5 minutes around Strella.

Overall episodes 1 and 2 were the most interesting, 3 to 5 just wasted too much time with John, and 6 was also good. I'd have liked to know more about the circus family.

As a bit of trivia the Butterfly scene in episode 6 is from "Branded to Kill" (1967) by Seijun Suzuki.

I hope that maybe in a few years this series gets a reboot, maybe set in America on US TV. It's too good an idea to go to waste.