Sex Is Comedy (2004)

A Masterpiece!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

A director struggles to film a key scene of her movie. This is apparently meant to be an autobiography of sorts for Breillat. Parrault, who made a splash as a ruthless killer in "La Femme Nikita" here plays a very different character. She is actually quite good as Breillat's alter-ego, a director obsessed with getting a sex scene in her movie just right. The whole film builds up to this one scene and it's just much ado about nothing, as Breillat's self-indulgence is transferred to Parrault. There's just too much talk, as she has to sooth the egos of her actors, who behave as if they were doing Shakespeare instead of what appears to be soft-core porn.

This might be an ironic film whose story is meant to portray what someone not in the film business thinks an "artistic" director is like and how they 'create' a movie. Perhaps the viewer is meant to supply something not included in the story or even hinted at: a director who is quite wealthy and is doing a vanity production which would allow the non-professionalism of it all. Or............. a wealthy parent or grandparent subsidizing the movie. (How else to explain a full professional and probable union crew being sent off the set (tick-tock, ching- ching) while the auteur figures things out. The director, obviously innocent of storyboarding or videoing important scenes between the two leading players in something called pre-production rehearsal, becomes "creative" instead of professional and that all-purpose, omniscient smile of hers, after seeing it for awhile, makes one think of a mad person, totally self-involved. Of course, some backer in real life did sign the check so one is left in wondering how Ms. Breillant was able to sell this script. "This might be an ironic film whose story, etc.", I said at the top of this review. No, it isn't and oh the overwhelming self-indulgence of it all!

As other users have noted, this movie is not really what you expect from a film billed as a comedy. I enjoy movies about making movies and I think this is definitely worth seeing if you like that genre. But it's not a movie to see if you're in the mood for a comedy, or if you think it's going to be sensuous or sexy, as I found it neither. The director harangues and insults the Actor and coddles the (beautiful but talentless) Actress and flirts with her assistant and often stands around looking troubled, trying to capture her vision (of a young girl losing her virginity) on film. **Spoiler Alert** Apparently her vision is very close to rape, IMO, and I found it extremely off-putting, after waiting an hour and half to *finally* get to it. It's not an especially satisfying film, though I might have enjoyed it more if I'd had the right expectations.

All of us, and certainly most filmmakers are trapped in small worlds. But it must be hell to be trapped in one that society recognizes as such. Breillat makes sometimes sensitive movies, all from within this tight shell, all with the same screams.But this one is different, a whole new tone. This time she follows a French model for films that are essays: she makes a film about a film that is an essay on sex. It works because such things are talk about movies and the portrayal of life in movies.It works because we don't have to relate to the poor girl in question, instead the filmmaker who is struggling with the representation.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.