Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

"Demonlover" focuses on Diane de Monx (Connie Nielsen) who works for a French corporation vying over ownership of a new state-of-the-art 3-dimensional Manga pornography website; matters become complicated, however, when an American company enters the picture, headed by Elaine Si Gibril (Gina Gershon), and Diane's new assistant, Elise (Chloë Sevigny) begins exhibiting unusual behavior. Volf, the company's headmaster, looms over the happenings, trying to romantically entice Diane. As the film progresses, it culminates to a disorienting, violent, and disturbing feud between the companies and their workers.Many people have panned this movie for its unusual style and admittedly disorienting second act (which I am willing to admit is a bit hard to keep up with), but I'm surprised how forthrightly negative people have been toward the film. It is everything but your run-of-the-mill technological thriller, with enough twists, tricks, and peculiar cinematography to please fans of new-age extremist films that seem to be becoming increasingly popular, especially in European countries.Assayas both wrote and directed the film, so one has to hold some respect for his vision, which he crafted from the very start. The film itself is something of an allegorical take on what our world could become in the near future: a place of business - nothing more, nothing less. The characters in the film are shining exhibitions of cold, calculative, emotionally flat shells of humans. Their entire beings revolve around their work and the corporate dealings and status; business, business, business. What is the company's next move? Is Mangatron trying to spoil the deal? What are the legal obstacles? The characters hardly speak of anything else, and the pallid sets and dull colors assist even more in creating a sterile atmosphere for the film.The use of various languages also give a sense of some sort of globalization that is occurring, with persons speaking French, English, and Japanese interchangeably; one of the earlier meetings between Volf's corporation and a fellow Japanese entity in a high-rise Tokyo office is a perfect example of this. Each of the central characters, all of whom are wholly engrossed in their corporate, alter-existence, speak several languages with ease. The barriers between the people are broken down just enough to the point where business can continue, but nothing more. It's hard to even see most of the characters as 'people' because of their subhuman demeanors, seeking control and playing with others are their tools and toys.The characters themselves owe credit to their performers; Nielsen is brilliant in the leading role of Diane, whose life slowly becomes a nightmare after a bit of corporate crawling. Charles Berling is menacing and has the right look for the head honcho corporate man, and Chloë Sevigny is entirely convincing as the mousy assistant who has a bit more going on behind her eyes than one might think. Gina Gershon also brings a bit of life to the film as a loud and talkative American executive who becomes embroiled in the corporate clash with her company which may or may not be involved with a virtual torture site called "The Hellfire Club".Aside from the film's thematics and social commentary, it is also visually delightful. The use of fuzzy closeups and reflection are somewhat reminiscent of a David Lynch movie; in fact, the film as a whole seems to have some Lynchian tinges to it - the alternate existence of the characters, and especially the mind-bending second act of the film all reminded me a bit of "Mulholland Drive" and the like. I'll admit, the last forty minutes or so are especially hard to swallow, but if you're able to get the pill halfway down, chances are it's eventually going to go all the way. It definitely takes some thinking, but it's not a completely incoherent assemblage of an ending.All in all, Assayas' "Demonlover" is one hell of a trip. If you like films in the vein of David Lynch (or perhaps David Cronenberg), chances are you'll find something worthwhile in this odd piece of cinema. The everyday moviegoer will probably be boggled beyond belief, but the film is not the narrative disaster that some people seem to think it is. It holds several meaningful messages (or should I say, warnings) to societies and the world as a whole, as well as delivering interesting cinematography and a cold, cold atmosphere. Especially good acting from Nielsen and Sevigny, as well. I suppose I really have no issues with the film at large; it may take some repeat viewings, though. Some films do. 9/10.

I hung in there and watched this movie beginning to end ( 120 minutes ). And it was hard to do. But I love Chloë Sevigny as an actress and she alone kept me watching. Following the storyline was very difficult. Lots of amoral business folk and that sort of thing. But the film did have good visuals and a fast pace, with scenes in Tokoyo, Paris and even Mexico. French, English and Japanese were spoken back and forth thru the film, making it even more confusing. More disturbing is that we may be at a point where torture on the internet may capture lucrative business. Where does depravity end? Will people do anything for money?To summarize, given another chance, I wished I would have chosen a different movie to watch today.

The film looks slick, the actors are good, period. End of merits. Director Assayas needs to sit down and do some homework before he writes a script. You may not be familiar with things like corporate espionage and the porn industry -though if you're going to make a film about them, you certainly should- but being blatantly ignorant about "the Internets" is just unacceptable. This movie feels as dated in most of its plot contrivances as if it was made in the eighties, but it's only five years old as I'm writing this. I mean, things like: how can a website be "highly profitable" and "impossible to find" at the same time? And if so, how come a teenage kid just goes and finds it? Oh, them kiddos with them Googles and stuff...On top of this kind of ignorant devices it's pretentious, slow-paced, full of plot holes, and just doesn't go anywhere. It's hard to point my toes downward, but if I could, I would give this film a four-thumbs-down.

Summary: two large adult animation companies are competing to see who can be the more powerful of the market. in these companies are french American and Japanese business people who will go to any lengths to sabotage and win over the other. Diane, working with Demonlover and creating a joint with TokyoAnime, is in between teams, beginning the film by drugging the previous project lead manager on the plane trip from Tokyo and then following up by working with the rival company MangaTronics. Along with her is her partner Hervé who seems to have a team of his own. To make things more complicated, it seems another girl Elise seems to know about the incident on the plane. What Diane discovers about the underground adult website market leads her into murder, deception, and even extreme torture. Its a very incense movie and features some twists and turns that will eventually lead to discovering the truth behind what really goes on in the underground scene.Story: 8/10 Sometimes a bit hard to follow. From the very start there's double-crossing and lies from both ends of the corporations. The movie never stops though and keeps you on your toes as to who is working for who and what motivates them. Its sexual themes are given just the right amount of screen time being the theme of the movie but off and on there's some sexual parts. It almost seems like two different stories as once the Hell Fire Club site is discovered a lot of the story focuses on Diane finding out more and who runs that.Acting: 8/10 All of the characters did very well. It was almost hard to see Connie Nielsen in such a role, seeing as she isn't usually the one doing all of the dangerous stuff. Chloë Sevigny did very well in her role and while she came off as the little secretary girl she grew to be completely twisted and dangerous as the main lead. Gina Gearshon had her moments but she played the typical American girl right.Sound Mix: 7/10 There's a few scenes in Rave clubs in Japan as well as different areas and luxurious hotels in France. There were a few intense scenes where the music kept its pace but nothing too drastic.Camera-work / Lighting: 9/10: The movie took place in a Lot of areas. All of the scenes of Japan were shot in dark brightly lit areas, mainly clubs and all kinds of other spotlight areas. There are many times that certain particular attention is drawn to objects (the water Diane drugs for instance) that it cleverly focuses on. Its nicely shot and gives everything in this film a real dark moody tone clashing perfectly with the underground adult industry.Editing: 7/10 The focus remains on Diane the entire time but we do get a glimpse of what the other characters are up to. Just enough so that we can follow it without losing the excitement and mystery of whats going on. The focus could have been better since things change halfway through the movie into a side plot of the Hell Fire Club website.Uniqueness: 8/10 For adult anime fans, yes it has that attraction to see what could possibly be going on behind the curtains of the industry. Also for anyone looking for something dark and mysterious, it would be good too. Fans of 8MM will notice certain scenes bare a resemblance as Diane is new to all of the things going on around her and whether she wants to or not, she gets involved in many ways.Worth: 8/10 It is interesting enough to hunt down and see. Coming across this wont be too easy as its a French film with spoken languages of Japanese English and French. Perhaps if a DVD is released internationally then it would be a promising movie to see if you're looking for an intense Drama Thriller. Fans of 8MM looking for more should see this as well.Overall Score (Not an average): 8.0 It isn't anything groundbreaking and there isn't anything new with twists and subplots that develop to other subplots but the movie would be good for something different as its French and takes place in many settings. The acting is very good and does have enough twists to stay interested. The story branching off might throw some people off but by that time they're used to the characters and should be interested enough to sit through the rest. It can be fairly violent at times so some squeamish people might want to think twice.Reviewer's Insight: Though finding information on this film wasn't easy, the main plot focusing on Adult Anime got me interested. Hearing Chloë Sevigny played a bad guy got me instantly hooked. It surprised me to hear both her and Connie Nielsen, and heck, even Gina Gearson for a line or two, speak French. Thankfully it didn't deter from the story at all and I followed it all the way. There was only one real sex scene but that didn't change my opinion of the story at all. I loved the many shots of Tokyo and the fluentness of certain scenes where they'd speak English, French, and Japanese and not miss a word in the translation. Its a solid flick and should be seen by anyone who enjoyed the intensity of 8MM and other thriller dramas.