Bitter Moon (1992)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Roman Polanski

Writers:

Gérard Brach (screenplay)
John Brownjohn (screenplay)

Release Date:

11 March 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

British couple Fiona and Nigel Dobson are sailing to Istanbul en route to India. They encounter a beautiful French woman...

Plot Keywords:

Abuse | Wheelchair | Paris | Accident | Sex

Cast

Hugh Grant	...	Nigel
Kristin Scott Thomas	...	Fiona
Emmanuelle Seigner	...	Mimi
Peter Coyote	...	Oscar
Victor Banerjee	...	Mr. Singh
Sophie Patel	...	Amrita Singh
Patrick Albenque	...	Steward
Smilja Mihailovitch	...	Bridge Player
Leo Eckmann	...	Bridge Player
Luca Vellani	...	Dado
Richard Dieux	...	Partygoer
Danny Wuyts	...	Bandleader (as Danny Garcy)
Daniel Dhubert	...	Bus Inspector
Nathalie Galán	...	Girl in Boutique (as Nathalie Galan)
Eric Gonzales	...	Cook

Also Known As:

Lunes de fiel (France)

MPAA:

Rated R for the strong depiction of a perverse sexual relationship.

Runtime:

139 min | Argentina:119 min

Country:

France | UK | USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:R21 | South Korea:18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:R | Brazil:14 | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Mexico:C | Norway:15 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Paris Studios Cinéma, Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France

Company:

Canal+

Trivia:

James Woods was cast in the Peter Coyote part but dropped out.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the scene when Mimi cuts her hair for the first time and bakes a Turkey for Oscar, he is wearing the same turtle necked blue sweater that was ripped off with a razor blade during a previous sex game.

Quotes:

Oscar: I'd been granted a glimpse of heaven, then dumped on the sidewalk of Rue d'Assas.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "100 höjdare: Sveriges skönaste människor: Norrland (#4.4)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

My Cherie Amour

"Bitter Moon" succeeds where "Eyes Wide Shut" fails

To dismiss this film as mere black comedy is to miss the point; it's more a lethally serious story cloaked in farce. The sexual extremes the characters go to are riotous; there is no doubt Polanski has a wickedly great sense of humor. But once Oscar and Mimi's ludicrous pornographic shenanigans have wound down, the film becomes something else altogether. There is nothing funny about Oscar's treatment of Mimi towards the end of and in the wake of their relationship, or her desperation to be with him at any cost; by the time the film winds up to her inevitable loathing of him, and the subsequent acts of revenge she takes, all comic pretense has evaporated in lieu of a deadly serious story about one person who has destroyed another human being (quite irreparably) with emotional and sexual excesses. Oscar's life is not ruined; only inconvenienced; he is incapable of regret, motivated entirely by self pity.

Upon reflection, "Bitter Moon" is largely...though very possibly inadvertently...a story about the suffering of women. As emotional characters, both Nigel and Oscar remain petty and stereotypical, at least until the very end of the film. It is really Mimi's story that is at the heart of it all, and therefore unfortunate that Seigner's acting is not up to par. Physically, she both exacerbates and compliments the concept of Mimi; in spite of her great beauty and femininity, there's an almost mannish coarseness, a heavy hewn, feral impassivity to her features that seems to negate her character's initial innocence (though by the end, it suits her).

Oscar's ongoing narrative reveals him (hilariously) to be a horrifyingly bad writer ("Nothing ever surpassed the rapture of that first awakening..I might have been Adam with a taste of apple fresh in my mouth") even as he complains bitterly of heading steadily towards the grave, sans a respectable publisher. His complete lack of physical and psychic sexual charisma makes every "erotic" encounter he describes sound cringingly tacky.But his cruelty is somehow as recognizably legitimate as Nigel's simpering cowardice.

Kristin Scott Thomas's Fiona is by far the most well acted, subtle, and painfully sympathetic character in the movie. She's adrift...literally and figuratively....in a sea of corruption and lies, with an almost noble desperation to beat her husband at his own game. She never once loses her dignity, even when she is degrading herself; her tryst with Mimi is not an act of vengeance, it's a sacrifice, a paradoxical act of grace, and great resignation, she carries out, so her husband doesn't have to. This is made clear by the film's moving final scene, when she is moved to tears by the innocence of the little girl.

Mimi is a portrait of innocence and love urned to bitterness and expert, manipulative craftsmanship by betrayal. Oscar is first and last and always to her. She can neither survive him nor live down what he did to her; one or both of them have to die or go free....and they do. In the end, Nigel and Fiona realize that they were right in their 'traditional' observances all along, and that relationships between human beings must have limits if they are to encompass a sustainable union.