Parfait Amour

Parfait amour! (1996) was written and directed by Catherine Breillat (Romance, Fat Girl), and is the story of an affair between a younger man, and an older woman. He is a business owner (we never learn anything about his business, or see him working). She is an Ophthalmologist, and has been married twice.

NUDITY REPORT

Francis Renaud and Isabelle Renauld are in bed for probably half of the running time, but she only briefly exposes her breasts during these scenes.

DVD info from Amazon.

widescreen

As the film opens, he is being arrested for first sodomizing her with a broom handle, then stabbing her to death with a butcher knife. As is always true when the ending is the first scene of the film, there is no tension or suspense of any kind, so the point of the film becomes to explain how and why this happened.

After 112 minutes mainly consisting of pretentious dialogue full of incomprehensible French thoughts and feelings, we learn that he did it because she pissed him off.

The Critics Vote

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The People Vote ...

IMDB summary. 32 IMDB votes have it at 6.5 of 10, which is way too high.

IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a D. Talky. Sub-titled. No plot or pace. The camera work is nothing special, but Renauld did give a decent performance.