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Catherine Breillat’s films bring with them an unshakeable sense of dread, a ticking timebomb sensation that erupts in quiet devastation—hold the wide-scale destruction. The French button-pusher, operating with over 30 years of filmmaking experience, seems to relish in punishing a viewer’s comfort level. The most scathing example is her 2001 shocker Fat Girl, a meditative study of an insecure teenager’s grappling with sensuality that takes a hard, visceral left-turn in its final section. Breillat’s latest picture, Bluebeard (Barbe Bleue), doesn’t hit with as strong a late-game blow as Fat Girl, but it certainly earns intelligent discussion once the credits roll. Breillat, who also wrote the script, turns her lifelong fascination with Charles Perrault’s same-named fairy tale into a nightmare fable remix. While not as universally known as other entries into the 17th century author’s oeuvre, including “Cinderella” and “Sleeping Beauty,” “Bluebeard” is coated in malice,...