An often highly misunderstood filmmaker, Alain Robbe-Grillet has explored the same shadowy realms of eroticized surrealism that his kindred spirit, fellow director Walerian Borowczyk, has. Robbe-Grillet first came to prominence with his highly esoteric novels, which examine the peculiarities of sex and the lovers who recklessly engage in it. Elegantly wrought and layered with a multitude of subtextual information, Robbe-Grillet’s writings initiated the reformation of the novel, a movement known as nouveau roman, which experimented with style and implemented a host of new literary ideas.
When Robbe-Grillet teamed up with fellow filmmaker Alain Resnais in 1960 to create Last Year at Marienbad, a labyrinthine narrative of understated sexual horror, his status as a provocateur of the arts had been secured. Robbe-Grillet would continue his work as a novelist while exploring the world of cinema with highly unusual and sexually disturbing films.
As the decades passed and times became more relaxed in their attitudes towards sex, Robbe-Grillet took the opportunity to push even further into the erotic universe of his fantasies, unabashedly presenting sexually frank displays of flesh onscreen, weaving entire storylines around threadbare concepts of desire. Released in 1983, La Belle Captive is just one of many films that Robbe-Grillet has written that deeply entwines the erotic with a subversive netherworld intellectualism.
Part murder-mystery, part erotic fever dream, La Belle Captive follows the story of a young man named Walter (Daniel Mesguich) who, one night at a bar, meets an alluring young woman (Gabrielle Lazure, doing her best Isabelle Adjani). After a couple of drinks and a dance with the ravishing woman, Walter drives home only to find the young woman he met at the bar lying bleeding and handcuffed in the middle of the road. The two drove off for medical assistance once he helped her into his car. They soon come across a mysterious manor. Inside, a group of suited men seem to be engaged in some ritual: all of the men are gathered inside a hall, and slowly, they encircle the bewildered couple. An elderly man, seemingly in charge, hands the young, injured woman a drink. Is it wine or blood? Soon after, the two are taken to a private bedroom and locked in for the night.
Robbe-Grillet’s script never comes clean as to what is going on in the narrative; the thing is, after a while, it’s easy not to care. If you allow yourself to be absorbed in the sequence of events rather than an actual story, La Belle Captive is a sumptuously captivating work, with Robbe-Grillet’s highly surreal and lush visuals creating a lavishly attractive nightmare. Much of the film is an exercise in translating the works of surrealist Belgian painter René Magritte’s paintings onto the screen. With no CGI involved, save for a few brief flashes of doctored images or any special camera tricks, Robbe-Grillet manages the jaw-dropping feat of bringing the world of Magritte’s painting to life. If the Belgian painter’s works of art are unnerving in their static form, they are downright terrifying in Robbe-Grillet’s cinematic world of sexual menace.
The performances add to the thick atmosphere of dread. Cyrielle Clair, in particular, is especially unsettling as Walter’s mysterious boss, Sara, who gives him covert (and possibly dangerous) assignments to complete. Her affectations are chillingly smug throughout, and her quietly malicious laughter in the very last scene is enough to make the blood run cold.
Olive Films have done a commendable job on their transfer. The film is just over 30 years old, but the transfer is nearly flawless. With only a few minor speckles and flicks of dirt, La Belle Captive radiates with a lush color scheme that, no doubt, was an intentional reference to the bold hues of Magritte’s paintings. It’s also wonderful to see a healthy amount of film grain in the stock, a clear reminder that we are watching an actual film, not the flat and sterile gloss of digital video.
As stylish, elegant, and moody as La Belle Captive is, it certainly is not for everyone. Long-winding scenes that seem to circle and go nowhere will test the patience of many viewers who crave action. The fact that this mystery has no discernable solution will frustrate those who demand all loose ends be tied by the finishing mark. Robbe-Grillet doesn’t walk the pedestrian roads, so if you want to maximize your enjoyment of the film, it’s best you question nothing and allow him the reins.
Where this home video release particularly fails is in the supplements: there are none to speak of, except for a trailer. Understandably, there couldn’t be an interview with the director since he is no longer alive today, but something, either a cast interview, a film critic commentary, or even an essay booklet, would have been appreciated. Seeing how Robbe-Grillet’s works are already challenging, it would have been nice to have further information to give those new to his work a way in.