Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

One of my all time favorites.

A Brilliant Conflict

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

According to Catherine Breillat many people believe that by watching "making of" they can understand the intricacies of the actual shooting process. She opines that this is not quite the case and the real process of filming a feature film is unfortunately very complex,hard to follow and difficult to understand. She goes on to add that rather than simplifying the creative process these programs end up confusing the viewers. Keeping this particular idea in mind, she has filmed a unique,trend setting film which relies heavily on the whims and fancies of its principal characters. One can have a first hand experience of how difficult things are on a set when a film is being shot. Compared to other films by Catherine Breillat,sex is comedy is devoid of controversial elements. As a film director in this film Anne Parillaud looks a bit similar to Catherine Breillat.Gregoire Colin is fine too as the moody actor. As a final comment, I would like to remark that this film is very serene and an inattentive viewer might not know how quickly the film is getting over.

This movie is a fascinating drama about the Making of a movie. The Actor and the Actress really can't stand each other, but we build up to a scene in which they are to have sex - she for the first time, per script. The actress shows little emotion on or off camera in the plot, aside from she is freezing in the early scenes on a beach. The actor is self absorbed and increasingly defies the direction of the Director, Jeanne. I could not help being drawn in to the drama of 'how are these two possibly going to ACT their way thru a Sex Scene?' That drama in itself becomes more exciting than the actual nudity and foreplay performed for the cameras. Not that Roxane Mesquida isn't lovely and worth seeing naked! However, there is a pretty young stage hand who walks thru a few scenes as an extra. I think that is her in the far left edge of one of the pictures (2 of 9) here in IMDb. I don't even know if this girl is credited, but when she walks by (fully dressed of course) in confident indifference with her short blonde hair -- SHE is Sexy! WHO IS THIS GIRL???

I wasn't surprised to read a comment by the director to the effect that she made this film as an antidote to all those "making of" DVD featurettes, as that certainly struck me. I do confess that I have a penchant for "meta," but I found this film to be very accessible and entertaining, and not even in a labored, self-consciously clever way, which is certainly a bit of what you expect in a film about film-making. It is very "French" in that there are a great deal of outlandish, yet occasionally compelling theories about how film-making (and even sexuality) "works," but since the director doesn't quite play herself (using an avatar instead), we're left with a lot of choices (since I'm pretty sure she's constantly contradicting herself). Apparently Catherine Breillat specializes in hard-to-watch films, but I'd definitely say this one doesn't qualify. I really enjoyed the dialog, the balance between the cinematic and the natural, the relationships between the director character and her assistant and actor, and so on. Highly recommended.

All of us, and certainly most filmmakers are trapped in small worlds. But it must be hell to be trapped in one that society recognizes as such. Breillat makes sometimes sensitive movies, all from within this tight shell, all with the same screams.But this one is different, a whole new tone. This time she follows a French model for films that are essays: she makes a film about a film that is an essay on sex. It works because such things are talk about movies and the portrayal of life in movies.It works because we don't have to relate to the poor girl in question, instead the filmmaker who is struggling with the representation.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.