Betty Blue

1986 snooze fest

Rating: 11/20

Plot: Wannabe writer Zorg (?) and his title girlfriend struggle to make their relationship work despite financial troubles and the latter's mental illness. He gropes her and wanders around naked. She gets groped and walks around naked. Their travels take them from a seaside community where Zorg (?) works as a handyman to a town where they work at a pizzeria and finally to a new town where they run a piano store. She goes crazy, probably from all the excessive groping. Zorg!!

The French certainly have no problem with male full-frontal nudity. Maybe they should? I don't know about the theatrical version, but this director's cut seemed endless. The biggest problem for me is that it's like the makers of this couldn't decide what they wanted it to be, and so what it ends up being is whimsically tragic which just comes across as completely artificial. There were definitely things that were well done (I almost Freudian typo'd "well hung"), but overall, this just fails to add up to much of anything. Some beautiful things to look at (Betty Blue's breasts are all over the place!), but so much of the three hours just seemed extraneous. The length of Betty Blue sort of drains the life out of it. It's also that type of movie that actually has an odor. Literally! I never want to see this movie again. And please don't mention it to me.