The School of Flesh (1998)

The Worst Film Ever

Absolutely the worst movie.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Although the two protagonists are so different from one another in age, socio-economic status, education, they are both lonely souls who have been deprived of guidance and love. It is the blind leading the blind as they come together in a kind of relationship of convenience.It seems at first that Dominique seeks a walk on the wild side, but ultimately to tame and to nurture her conquest, while Quentin seems to take even temporary financial support wherever he can find it. The characters' development, through their relationship with each other, and as they expose how their inner life has been conditioned before they met, is a kind of dance of the seven veils.Neither is who each seems and manages to defy the inevitable stereotype we expect to fit the story's premise. The nuanced twists and turns in character, and particularly as they forge a relationship with "the other," demands subtle acting. Both actors are up to the task. Martinez's presence grows as an essential humanity is revealed that elevates him above his day to day urge for survival and autonomy. Isabelle Hubert stuns by restraint, bringing vulnerable dignity to Dominique's emotional trajectory.They can not change the fate of their relationship, but they leave a lasting impression on each each other nonetheless.

This movie examines obsession of the heart and body. Isabelle is brilliant. She is very personal. She expresses her need to be adored in a very vulnerable way, as in the arcade scene, when the boy refuses to leave. She walks away, the camera tracks with her, revealing her ambivalence and confusion. She then returns, tries to play his games, but is unsuccessful. It's a wonderful scene and she's fabulous. Love to meet and work with this incredible actor. Her expressions are so telling. This movie had subtitles here in American and I really didn't need them most of the time to understand what was happening on the screen. I could identify with needing someone so much that you are addicted to them. Again, terrific movie. No car chases, just people chases.

More than a few French film-makers seem to like to take two strong characters—with different strengths—and throw them together and wait for the reactions. Jacquot's version of this procedure involves an older woman, Dominique (Isabel Huppert) involved with a younger man, the hustler Quentin (Vincent Martinez).While this pairing suggests cliché, somehow it grows well beyond the usual fare To begin with, Dominique is a complicated character, strong, in control of her life, inclined to be merry though not entirely content with things and hating boredom. It's not entirely clear what she does professionally—perhaps a designer or owner/executive of a fashion company—but she enjoys it and is good at it. She takes her droopy friend (Danièle Dubroux) around with her, and at a nightclub she sees Quentin staring at her. The gay waiter Chris (Vincent Lindon) helps her get acquainted, and an affair begins. Quentin is fickle and stubborn and wayward, turns tricks for money, knows he's good at it, prefers women but doesn't mind men.He isn't as strong as he looks. Though Quentin makes gestures about preserving his independence, going out, seeing others, and doling out attention according to his convenience, in fact Dominique makes the rules. When he does things that would hurt or threaten a more conventional woman, she remains unfazed. What she wants is Quentin as he is, vibrant and smoldering and vulnerable. It's interesting to watch the way his attempts to assert a bad-boy independence always wind up with him walking away from the supposedly edgy scene—the nightclub where they met, the street where the rent-boys hustle—with Dominique, or heading back to her apartment. And it's surely symbolic that he practices karate enthusiastically in the dojo, but he's not so tough outside, falling down twice in brief fights.But when inevitably there's a crisis it's not a predictable case of him acting out the bad boy part. No, he plans to marry the pretty young daughter of Dominique's friends. Dominique has the chance to blackmail Quentin with explicit pictures of him having sex with a male client, provided by Chris (who says she wanted to be able to have power over him but not to use it. Dominique is stronger. But she burns them. And in doing so, she realizes they're finished. Quentin wants to stay with Dominique, but by this time she's exhausted. She sends him away; he sits shirtless on the floor, mourning, refusing to leave. Then a brief coda: Dominique a few years later, elegant, with longer hair, runs into Quentin outside a metro stop. He's carrying a young child, his daughter from his by now failed marriage. He gives Dominique his address, but she doesn't take it. She watches him go.Martinez is pretty good, sneaking in boyishness under the carapace of macho sexuality, and he has a great smile. Lindon is also excellent as Chris, an elective girl with a great knowing look. There are also a couple of brief appearances by an old boyfriend of Quentin's, Soukaz (François Berléant), who is rueful and nervously dignified. The real delight is Huppert, who is simply breathtaking in this part. In other movies she has been called upon for over-the-top effects, but here she uses a subdued, subtle technique, registering emotions with small but affective expressions: boredom, curiosity, desire, joy, discomfort, hope, desperation, humour, calm, sadness, self-control. A great movie, one that turns stereotypes inside out.

Dominique, a successful woman, meets, sleeps with and begins supporting an attractive young bisexual hustler in Paris. While his life to that point is a complete mystery, it has been a mess and the woman provides him an oasis of calm. He comes to care for her and she for him but he refuses to become domesticated and still goes out at night and refuses to talk with her about it. When this relationship ends, as it seems all film relationships must, she is given the power to destroy him in the form of some very incriminating photos. It is up to her to decide. How does she really feel? Should she use the power that has been given her?