Anatomy of Hell (2004)

This is an extremely difficult film to watch, Certainly, I appreciated seeing it alone. It is not and experience I would wish to share in a theater.Daniel Day-Lewis may "drink your milkshake," but I doubt very much if he would partake of the woman's (Amira Casar) tea made with a used tampon, and offered to the man (Rocco Siffredi) as a means of bonding. It gives "drinking the blood of my enemies" a whole new meaning.Catherine Breillat has certainly pushed the envelope with this film about men and women and men's hatred and fears of women. There is really nothing erotic about this film; it is provocation meant to shock and awe.That may be what is needed in the discussion, but it certainly takes a strong person to observe and think.The Woman hires The Man, who happens to be gay, and can therefore be more objective (?) to observe her over four nights and comment on what he finds objectionable about women. The love/hate/fear between men and women is discussed and played out in a way I have not seen before, but in such a way that it really made me think. I believe that is Breillat's objective, and she certainly achieved it.It is not meant to be erotic, and it is not pornographic, although is ostensibly has real sex included, but is, shall we say, meant to provoke discussion.

It's going to be very hard to write a review for this film that isn't going to be pounced on by censorship, but I'll give it a try.Within the first five minutes of this film, a woman attempts suicide in the bathroom of a gay disco. It is, perhaps, the most cheerful moment in this bleak, drab film that takes a close-up and clinical look at women's genitalia and the men who don't love them. And apparently the women who aren't feeling too good about them either, since the reason that the "heroine" attempts to kill herself is, she says, because she's a woman.A gay man saves her and winds up spending four nights watching her. Of course, he winds up doing more than that. At one point, he manages to lodge the handle of a large gardening tool in a rather intimate location... without waking her up. Does _anybody_ sleep that soundly? Well, maybe the audience...In between long segments of the character "man" telling us why he's gay (although you wouldn't know it by watching this movie!) and the heroine "woman" tells us why its so hard to be her, we get some truly remarkable revelations. Ever wondered how long a woman could hold a rock inside her girlie bits or what large quantities of menstrual blood look like when smeared across the groin of a partially-aroused Frenchman? Then this is the movie for you! At one point, the heroine goes so far as to equate her reproductive opening to a vast black void, and in yet another we learn that men can give only death, and that's why gay men turn gay. Or something. You know, it's hard to follow a story when every line in the script is a veritable hyperbola of pith and the observation of humanity. Well, some seemingly quite miserable segment of humanity, anyhow.I am, admittedly, not a devotee of French cinema. I subscribe to the stereotype that most French movies are... well... like this one. There are people in the world who take their lower regions far too seriously, and one of them has made a movie.If you've ever wanted to kill yourself over the fact that you possess genitalia, be sure and check out this fine croissant stuffed with French cheese and a few things that IMDb won't let me mention using the names by which they're most commonly called. Mark my words, you'll never look at your crotch the same way again!

I have recently embarked upon a period where I have invested a great deal of time viewing foreign and independent films. I have reached a time wherein Hollywood's view of life is a bit too sunny and a bit too pat. However.....my survey of many of these films are about to send me scurrying back to the pat and plastic Hollywood answers to love and sex. The Anatomy of Hell is the most extreme example of what I have confronted.Are there bad men? Yes, without a doubt, there are pitiful examples of manhood, world wide. However, they are bad men because they are bad men. They are not bad men only to women. Men who need to control and dominate are equal opportunity offenders, the presence of a vagina or menstrual blood has nothing to do with their idiocy. I have worked twenty-five years, with the victims of misogyny as a social worker/counselor. I have confronted the users and abusers of women and have concluded first and foremost that they are usually men who don't love themselves and incapable of loving anyone, male or female. They are very damaged individuals.The vast majority of men love, like and respect women. We're different. We see things differently. We experience things differently. One is no better than the other. Indeed, I would submit that this is why we work best in pairs. Male/female couples allows us to view the world more completely. Your off-sex partner can interpret, explain, and clarify things to you that we don't quite "get." And how do you form the bond that makes this mutual sharing possible? It's called love.Hollywood tends to peddle romantic idealism, while foreign and independent films tend to sell love and sex as an unending gender war. I have no problem with feminist perspectives. This film, however, is too, too extreme--its indictments too broad. Can we all benefit by becoming better people? No doubt, but I am certain that the real answers that we are seeking lay between Hollywood and The Anatomy of Hell. I'm just not seeing it yet. I guess that I still have other films to watch.

SPOILERS! Another reviewer mentions "Irreversible" when talking about this film. "Irreversible" was horrific and very hard to watch, but at least one could say it had a point. I'm pretty sure "Anatomy of Hell" has no point at all. What is the point, for instance, of taking a used tampon, dipping it in water like a teabag, and then drinking the water? I suppose if one wanted to inspire intense nausea that would work. Or what is the point of inserting a garden implement handle into a woman's vagina--and leaving it there? This "movie" consists of LONG vignettes of lackadaisical upper-crust European types talking in monotones leading up to profoundly disgusting physical acts. Breillat must think this equals artistic significance, but it's more like a lousy geek show that overcharges for admission and then is boring. "9 Songs" was similar in some ways, but at least the sex in "9 songs" was erotic, and the music was hot. I just can't imagine what reason "Anatomy of Hell" has for existing.