There can be beauty in tragedy, particularly when the key ingredient is the same in both
Betty Blue (1986)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
Reviews Counted:24
Fresh:18
Rotten:6
Average Rating:6.4/10
Runtime: 3 hrs 5 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Synopsis: A shocking and offbeat story of two French lovers, Zorg (Jean-Hugues Anglade) and Betty (Beatrice Dalle), who fall into a deeply erotic and all-encompassing relationship. Zorg is a simple repairman... A shocking and offbeat story of two French lovers, Zorg (Jean-Hugues Anglade) and Betty (Beatrice Dalle), who fall into a deeply erotic and all-encompassing relationship. Zorg is a simple repairman in his mid-thirties who lives a relatively dull life in a remote, weathered shack until he meets Betty, a sexy, mercurial younger woman who challenges his way of thinking and forces him to change his life. When Betty and Zorg are not having wild and uninhibited sex (and joyously traipsing around naked), Zorg is writing his novel, an unpublished masterwork that Betty discovers and vehemently champions. Betty, prone to violent fits of passionate rage, attacks Zorg's boss and burns their shack down, leaving Zorg no choice but to join her on a series of spirited adventures. They move in with Betty's best friend and her boyfriend and for a brief time live a happy bohemian lifestyle, wild and crazy in love. But as the film progresses, Betty's mental illness becomes more apparent, she lives in a fitful manic world of passionate highs and lows while Zorg desperately attempts to coddle and comfort her. Finally, the lovers start over in a dreamy rural town, hoping to live a normal life, but Betty's fantasy world encroaches on her reality as she slowly spirals out of control in this intense story of love and lust, based on the novel by Philippe Djian. [More]
Starring: Beatrice Dalle, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Gerard Darmon, Clementine Celarie
Starring: Beatrice Dalle, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Gerard Darmon, Clementine Celarie, Jacques Mathou
Director: Jean-Jacques Beineix
Director: Jean-Jacques Beineix
Screenwriter: Jean-Jacques Beineix
Producer: Claudie Ossard
Composer: Gabriel Yared
Get This Movie
Rent DVD
Click on the "ADD" button to put this movie into your Netflix queue.
Buy DVD
Reviews for Betty Blue
A playful, meandering, somewhat confusing tale that hangs together as a portrait of demented love.
Rarely seen in this country in the intervening 23 years, Dalle gives one of the all-time-great performances as Betty.
Beinex's Oscar-nominated, quintessentially French amour fou tells of a love relationship that descends into madness, splendidly played by Dalle as the free-spirited troubled femme; one scene of self-inflicted violence is truly tough to watch.
Occasionally drags and meanders, but it boasts an impressive visual style and a radiant, charismatic performance by the ultra-sexy Béatrice Dalle.
If Betty Blue feasts on the bodies of its leads, it’s this director’s cut that fully establishes the movie’s artistic bona fides.
Curvy, ripe Dalle, only 21 at the time and in her first screen role, completely commits to the part.
If Dalle never made anything of note again -- and she didn't -- then this alone would be enough to stake her claim as an icon of late 20th century cinema.
Beineix's film is awash with the humour and cool of his debut, Diva, but lacks the cohesion to sustain its weighty ambition.
The movie was colorful and swirling and oppressive all at once, and in 1991, Beineix recut it not to slim it down but to add a florid third hour.
Dalle, a model, makes a moving debut as the desperate baby-doll who fails to mold reality to her own conceptions of happiness. Anglade is more introvertedly affecting as the lucidly casual, but devoted Zorg.
Beineix's villagescapes and countryside vistas are hard to resist, and the dichotomy of a stone cold looney prancing around them only makes the tableau more curiously complete
If Betty Blue teaches us anything -- and there's a good chance it doesn't -- it's that life is full of little mysteries.
Latest News for Betty Blue
July 12, 2009:
Director's Cut: Trailer & Poster review ![]()
More...
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | G.I. Joe: The Rise of … |
| 52% 52% | The Taking of Pelham 1… |
| 45% 45% | Ice Age: Dawn of the D… |
| 19% 19% | Transformers: Revenge … |
| 55% 55% | Orphan |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 98% 98% | Up |
| 88% 88% | Ballast |
| 67% 67% | The Merry Gentleman |
| 56% 56% | Enlighten Up! |
| 12% 12% | Spread |
RT On Current TV
DIRECTV 358 | Comcast 107 | DISH Network 196 | More...
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
CloseSponsored Links
Around The Network
- Betty Blue at Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh Links
Featured

Moviefone looks back at 7 films that have paved the way for movies like 2012.

BuzzSugar rattles off their 10 favorite current actors with celebrity pedigree.

The AV Club looks back at a dance sequence from the only movie written by... Dr. Seuss?

TIME reminisces on the 10 most iconic moments from the films of Cameron Crowe.



Top Critic


