One of the most refreshing things about the large number of female directors working in France is that 96 or 97 per cent of them are making mainstream films with not so much as a nod to feminist issues. Then, of course, we have Catherine Breillat who appears to be single-handedly attempting to redress the balance. Abandoning her usual in-yer-face quasi pornography she offers a more or less straightforward version of the classic fairy tale but elects to frame it with a modern day pair of sisters actually reading the story whilst in another time-frame, possibly the 16th or 17th century, another pair of siblings act it out with the younger actually opting to be the newest bride of the notorious barbe bleu. There's a nice and well deserved knock to the Catholic church in the shape of a heartless Mother Superior who observes coldly having just informed the siblings of the death of their father that she is running a private school and not a charity before turfing them into the street in practically the next breath. Very soon afterwards there is a very effective 'art house' shot as the coach in which they are travelling moves through a mist-shrouded forest in autumn and that's about it. If you thought the likes of Richard Todd, Lawrence Harvey et al were wooden wait til you get a load of this cast who came not so much from Central Casting as from the whittling knife of Pinnochio's old man. Well worth missing.
Review of Bluebeard
