I really thought I knew what I was getting into when I sat to watch this; the premise seems clear enough. Golly, was I wrong. Of course, I should've known better, given some of the other titles that writer and director Alain Robbe-Grillet has been involved with in one capacity or another - I loved a couple, and was simply flummoxed by others - but here we are nonetheless. Characters periodically address the camera directly; despite the serious subject matter, the film as an extremely wry, dry comedy, or in the very least a sideways arthouse flick that plays fast and loose with reality and refuses to establish a tone that's any more than halfway toward "sober." For good measure throw in absurdism that rather recalls Monty Python, including light and jaunty music, playful repetition of shots (and rearrangements within such repetition), and beats and ideas that fly in from out of nowhere. Then there's the fact that the organization's activities and movements work flawlessly, with seemingly no one uninvolved; moreover, between the sets, sequencing, and editing generally, the movie as very light regard for even for spatial awareness, time, or narrative flow. At least as much as 'Glissements progressifs du plaisir' or 'La belle captive,' and possibly more so, 'Le jeu avec le feu' is a bizarre trip of a viewing experience.
Bizarre - but also entrancing. I won't pretend for one moment that I entirely understand what Robbe-Grillet was doing here, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't like it. This is strongly characterized by an odd whimsy rather reflecting the "just so" sensibilities of fairy tales, taking place within a self-contained world, more than any picture of mainstream cinema. In fact, given the quasi-surrealist nature of the presentation, and indeed of Carolina's experiences, maybe 'Alice in Wonderland' is a fairer point of comparison, for this is all over the place and while there's indisputable rhyme and reason to it, these are kept secret and mysterious for the audience. Even standing next to the filmmaker's other works, and relative to many others that I've watched, 'Le jeu avec le feu' bounces all over the place in its storytelling and even simply in its imagery from moment to moment, mixing infrequent somber notes (kidnapping, trafficking, bondage and sex slavery) with the abstruse, the outrageous and silly, the sprightly and jesting, and the outright weird. Somewhere in here there are even discernible themes about how men, broadly, and particularly the wealthy and powerful, will prey upon women under any circumstances whatsoever if they have the means and opportunity to do so. Or is it just that the film itself is misogynist and exploitative?
However one wishes to look at it, I don't think there's any disputing that it's splendidly well done such as it is. The cast treated this as any other job, and give fine performances; if anything it's simply hard to concretely assess the acting in light of the wildly offbeat nature of the picture. The production design and art direction are both utterly gorgeous,not to mention heavily detailed, splitting the difference between imaginative drama and outright fantasy; the costume design, hair, makeup, and even props are unmistakably lovely. Bob Wade's editing is genuinely terrific, as precise and fluid as it is often vehement, and Yves Lafaye's cinematography is crisp and vivid. Even the lighting is employed to gratifyingly sharp ends, nevermind those stunts and practical effects on hand. And for as mystifying as Robbe-Grillet's vision may be, with scene writing, characters, and a narrative that exist outside the confines of any meaningful notion of reality, for better or worse it's something one really just needs to see for themselves - including shrewd direction that ties together every shot, scene, and performance with a masterful, practiced hand. Words like "inscrutable" or "impenetrable" are a step or two too far, but there's no denying the expertise that put this together in every cpacity, and still I can only respond to the whole with "what?"
Between the subject matter, the near constant nudity and regular sexual content, and of course the oblique, peculiar approach to the story, this could only ever find favor with a decidedly niche audience. Even given a thorough outside dissection of the feature I don't know that I'd ever completely understand what I'm supposed to be taking away from it, for Robbe-Grillet has created a strange slice of cinema that is something all its own, points of reference be damned. Yet for all that it is, and might be said to represent - including some eyebrow-raising sound cues, and that wide-ranging but flavorful music - I'd plainly be lying if I said 'Le jeu avec le feu' weren't enjoyable in its way, and uniquely engrossing. Why, there even comes a point within the last few minutes when the plot and the overarching ethos seem to careen into another movie altogether ("I didn't understand the script at all. But I think that's what it was."), and still I'm taken by the totality of it all. So yes, one should be keenly aware of what it is they're getting into before they even think about watching, and even for those who are open to all the wacky possibilities that the medium has to offer it may meet with uneven results at best. But if you're receptive to the most far-flung and out-of-the-ordinary experiences, 'Le jeu avec le feu' is definitely one of a kind.
