Bitter Moon (1994)

The Worst Film Ever

Brilliant and touching

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

When I saw the film "Bitter Moon", I did not think the film would be what it was. Throughout the film, you follow a story told by a paraplegic passenger on a cruise ship who shares his life and his past with another young married man. The handicapped gentlemen reveals to this young man why the decisions and choices that he has made in the past has cost him the ability to walk and why he is in a relationship with a woman younger than himself. As you follow the story, which starts off rather romantically, it eventually becomes more complicated as the relationship between him and his partner, in the story, become complicated in the way that they treat each other. In the beginning of their relationship, he is a confident, good looking and talented man who wants to make the most of his life and of his youth. When he meets a young woman who is beautiful, foreign and intelligent, the relationship begins to change over time after they begin to engage in sexual games and habits that eventually warp their perceptions on each other and on themselves. They originally intended to make their sexual relationship more fun and so they encourage each other to satisfy each other in way's, that at first, seem like fun, but when the games start to become more deadly, the relationship starts to strain. After being together a while, he begins to lose interest in her and she begins to feel like an after thought. As time goes by, his interest turns to other women and she begins to feel unimportant to him and so she does her best to keep his interest by doing things that just push him further away. This desperation on her behalf, causes his arrogance, because she will literally do anything for him, to take over him and he starts to become mentally and physically abusive towards her. The relationship get's worse and worse, until eventually. his reckless behavior and his attitude which is to take from life and not give anything back, causes him to drunkenly step in front of a vehicle. After breaking his leg, the woman he has treated appallingly, takes it upon herself to look after him, turning the tables, and now, she is in control of the relationship, whereas before, he was in control. The injury leaves him vulnerable and the woman decides to remind him of how badly he has treated her. She does everything he did to her, which included, inviting random people back to their apartment, treating him with little respect and deliberately showing him that she could get any man she wanted, all in an attempt to get revenge and to hurt him the way he hurt her. After the battle in the relationship had subsided and they realized that they needed each other, they get married and take a vacation on a cruise ship where he manages to meet a man who is in a relationship where he is bored, finding life predictable and is hiding with his wife behind a facade of snobbery and innocence when actually, he is as sexually frustrated and as open minded, as the man telling the story. The end of the story left me thinking that the two relationships are so different and yet, so similar. They have two different approaches with dealing with their relationship and how they convey it to others day to day, however, behind closed doors, they are experimental, open minded and want to enjoy themselves as best they can. Just when the man hearing the story begins to feel his prudish wife is never going to satisfy his hidden sexual frustration, he finds out that his wife is suffering the exact same mental situation, thinking that he would never satisfy her sexual frustration. Society has caused human beings to hide their animal instincts, which are in all of us, but we do this to make each other more comfortable in social interactions. Hiding our inner interests causes us to get creative and this film shows exactly that, in a relationship that appeared, on the face of it, to be perfect! A really clever film that takes an issue that probably effects many marriages and relationships. I would definitely recommend watching it if you're open minded and don't mind a story that does not "sugar coat" anything when it comes to sexual fetishes.

This is a very subjective review. The movies I like best are the ones that provoke a deep and prolonged emotional response, however flawed from an objective point of view. Therefore I have no problems in giving it a 10/10, because that's how it made me feel. I was completely and utterly engulfed by the characters and their tragic story. It is extremely moving, and although the explicitness of the film seems to have put a lot of people off, I actually found its candidness to be what made it such a strong and compelling expression of human nature.1990s Paris is beautifully photographed in this film, which also moved me as I grew up there in that very period. Every little detail of 90s urban life that no longer exists is there, and took me straight back: the characteristic brown upholstery of Parisian buses, people's clothes, car models and now long gone rolling stock of the Métro. Even 90s telecommunications technology features in a very meaningful way (Minitel, for those in the 'know' - a precursor to the Internet which the French more or less invented).Maybe it's not the film for you, and Polanski can't resist the odd Hitchcockian joke and surreal scenes, which for some reason puts people off, personally I like them very much. The final irony of the movie is of course that its main protagonist, a failed writer who complains he has not published a single word, ends up being his own beautiful, revolting and tragic story of his own life.

It's very hard to separate the turbulent events in Roman Polanski's life from his movies; surely they have defined his work, especially as he has so much control over what he does. So what are we to make of Bitter Moon? When directing his real-life wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, Polanski placed himself in the position of Peter Coyote's character, who seems to take perverse pleasure in watching his wife having affairs with other men. One can only wonder what Roman was thinking as he directed Coyote to lick the milk spilling down Seigner's naked torso - even if it was just acting. Later in the movie, Seigner cavorts sans pants a couple of more times with Coyote. Maybe everyone involved could have used a session or two with Doctor Phil.The film starts on a cruise liner as a young married couple, Nigel and Fiona Dobson (Hugh Grant and Kristen Scott Thomas), become involved with wheelchair bound Oscar Benton (Peter Coyote) and his seductive wife Mimi (Emmanuelle Seigner). Benton has a goading nature and takes delight in telling Nigel details of his life with Mimi sparing no juicy detail, much of which is seen in flashback. He tells how he went from lust to obsession then to absolute disdain before becoming totally dependent on her when he landed in the wheelchair.When Nigel learns that Benton practically throws his wife at other men, he becomes entranced with her and is determined to be one of those men. However, near the end, Nigel and Fiona receive a jolt that reignites their marriage, or so it seems as the ship sails off into the sunset.It wasn't until halfway through the film, about the time Benton entered the disdain phase of his relationship with Mimi, that I think I finally got this movie - it's a comedy - a black one to be sure. The change of pace midstream, especially when Benton starts to bully Elsa, is pretty ridiculous, and Coyote's performance isn't all that convincing from that point on unless the whole thing is seen as a big joke played on the hapless Nigel – then it makes perfect sense.Although definitely over-the-top, "Bitter Moon" doesn't give you much time to think about the inconsistencies. It's not in the same league as "Chinatown", "The Ghost Writer" or "The Pianist", but just waiting to see how far Polanski will let his wife go is enough to keep you on the edge of your seat without worrying too much about the story.

For all those who think that this dark psychological drama from Roman Polanski is just kinky sex and full of S&M, it isn't - and simply isn't a film for you, or at least for what you want.There are a few reviews around where such people wanted those elements and when they didn't like the baggage and the 130 minutes running time, they gave it one star. This is an intelligent, 'thinking person' relationship drama that follows themes often visited by Polanski, not least his debut, the Polish language Knife In the Water. One couldn't help thinking there's a bit of Bertolucci's Last Tango In Paris and Kubrick's Eyes Wide Open in there too.However, despite all that is written, apart from the first few minutes, settling us into the characters and scenario, for the first hour or so, is actually a very lovely and often seductive and tender adult love story, set against the romance and beauty of Paris. With Peter Coyote's American writer, following and referring to other 'Americans in Paris' F Scott Fitzgerald and such, becoming the film's narrator and lead character, it really is the rose-tinted view of Parisian life and women that's fuelled popular culture and literature for decades.In this case, it's Polanski's actual wife (Emmanuelle Seigner) who plays the young and nubile dancer, Mimi, that takes on the older Oscar (Coyote). The seduction and (non-graphic) sex scenes are actually very sensual and erotic, enticing us into a world of bliss, allowing Polanski to share with us his own fantasies (perhaps) as well as putting this relationship on a high plateau, from which it ultimately disintegrates - this being the thrust of the movie.To give credence and body to all this, a now wheelchair-bound Oscar confides in reserved posh Brit Hugh Grant, in a sort of bitter wife-swap scenario, that's both warped and distasteful. They're all on a cruise to India, via Turkey and the in built confinement and boredom this provides is the prefect trap. Nigel Dobson (Grant) though, cannot keep away from these reminisces and his relationship with his own wife Fiona (Kristen Scott Thomas) is put under the microscope and the four slip into an unhealthy psychological mêlée.Throughout, Polanski is playful, devious, malicious and often in love with the idea of his wife playing the young temptress in all this. In my view - and circumstances - would say that this really needs the life experiences of those over forty in its audience for them to halfway appreciate human nature and all its dark sides, as well as its joys. Some say it is excellent, I think it far from being his best work but a whole lot better than many he's made.I bought my DVD from Cash Converters for 66.6p, recurring.