Watching this movie is an unquestionable pleasure for your eyes, and an unbelievable loss for your mind. But those of you who enjoy surrealism in literature, Robbe-Grillet's books, and movies by Luis Bunuel should be, to some extent of course, satisfied. Jeu avec le feu contains a lot of nudity and perversions, scenes of rape, chasing a woman with huge dogs, a sort of bestialism scene etc. Still, it is depicted in a way that makes you think you are watching the dream of a little boy with seriously (and sexually) distorted mind. This constitutes the greatest advantage of the film. From the very beginning we are exposed to illogical, non - linear action, switches of the roles among characters, and it is highly entertaining to observe how one not-so-innocent girl is trapped in such a ridiculous and at the same time oniric environment. Robbe-Grillet plays with fire here (pun intended), as he tries to persuade us into thinking that all perversions are justified if we get rid of our logic and psychological restraints. The action takes place in a brothel, where we can observe interaction between clients and prostitutes, which are usually kidnapped or forced to play a role of a sex-slave. However, they do not seem to object to their situation as much as we would expect them to. Quite the contrary, some of them seem to enjoy their experiences, to the point of accepting their being sentenced to death in order to amuse a client. But its not only about "all of us are masochists". Grillet seems to claim that if one is put into utterly chaotic environment, deprived of any point of reference, his mind will accept every, even most humble role just to get through it. Anyway, this movie is worth watching, but only for those fond of surrealism and artistic experiments. And its definitely not pornographic.
Review of Playing with Fire
