Film Review | Bluebeard by Catherine Breillat, out on DVD

Year: 2009
Director: Catherine Breillat
Cast: Dominique Thomas, Lola Creton, Daphne Baiwir











Director Catherine Breillat is no stranger to tales of eroticism and sado-masochism - she made Romance and The Last Mistress - but in bringing the Bluebeard story to the screen (called Le Barbe Bleue in French) she delves further into fantasy, myth and fairytale in the magical Limousin landscape.

This traditional story of an ogre of an aristocrat who apparently entraps and kills his wives, is told via a clever mise-en-scene. In the 1950s, a young girl is reading the story of the evil Blue Beard to her sister. We are then switched back to the same sisters, now a little older, living out the story in 1697. It''s a clever device and never grates on the viewer, especially given the excellent performances of the young actresses.

One night one of the girls, who has married Bluebeard despite rumours of the grim end to previous mistresses, sneaks into a forbidden room when he is away and makes the most maccabre of discoveries.

Will she become the latest to fall victim? As we learn more, so does the younger of the 1950s sisters, who is too scared to hear the rest of the story.

Dare she, or you, learn the conclusion?

Click here to view the trailler

Tuesday, Janauary, 17th by Katharine Barrau