Betty Blue

Director: Jean-Jacques Beineix

1986 / 185min / DCP

Beatrice Dalle rocketed to international stardom playing the title role in Beineix’s steamy, stylish erotic drama, portraying a tempestuous, sybaritic 19-year-old working as a waitress on the sun-splashed French Riviera who upends the life of Jean-Hugues Anglade’s Zorg, an aspiring novelist toiling as a handyman between bouts with his novel. The two begin a torrid amour fou affair, with an increasingly overwhelmed Zorg finding himself going to ever greater lengths to protect his lover from herself—and others, including himself, from his lover—as her delicious impulsiveness shades into full-blown madness. An ideal vehicle for Dalle and her singularly carnivorous carnality, and a paean to self-immolating passion that is by turns thrillingly exuberant and utterly gutting.

Distributor: Janus Films