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Bitter Moon

7.1

12,253

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Original title

Bitter Moon (Lunes de fiel)

Year

1992

Running time

139 min.

Country

France

Director

Roman Polanski

Screenwriter

Gérard Brach, Roman Polanski, John Brownjohn. Novel: Pascal Bruckner

Cast

Music

Vangelis

Cinematography

Tonino Delli Colli

Producer

Co-production France-United Kingdom;

R.P. Productions, Les Films Alain Sarde, Canal+

Genre

Drama | Erotic. Jealousy. Cult Movie

Synopsis

On a cruise to Istanbul in celebration of their seventh wedding anniversary, uptight British couple Nigel (Hugh Grant) and Fiona (Kristin Scott Thomas) encounter American expatriate Oscar (Peter Coyote), a wheelchair-bound unpublished novelist traveling with his young French wife, Mimi (Emmanuelle Seigner). Nigel is immediately drawn to the sexy but distant Mimi, and Oscar, sensing the other man’s fascination with his wife, takes him aside to recount in exhibitionistic detail the sordid tale of their once-passionate love affair, which gradually deteriorated into a series of increasingly sadistic and degrading sex games. In flashback scenes, it soon becomes clear that the self-serving Oscar represents the corrosive element in the couple’s relationship--though the tables will eventually be turned.

Critics' reviews

"Another uncompromising Polanski study of the ways people torture each other. Read full review

Noel Murray: AV Club
"Whatever its flaws, this rudely kinky dissection of a sadomasochistic love affair is, in a sense, the Polanski film we’ve been waiting for"

Owen Gleiberman: Entertainment Weekly
"After 36 years of making movies, Polanski may be off his creative rocker, but he's still having fun"

Desson Thomson: The Washington Post
"'Bitter Moon' would be a camp classic if it weren't so dispiriting watching Roman Polanski cannibalize and then finally parody himself into narrative and artistic collapse"

Jay Carr: Boston Globe
"Polanski has great wicked fun with sex, love, cruelty, books, movies and, of course, himself."

Peter Travers: Rolling Stone
"The word 'lurid' was coined to describe films like this"

Roger Ebert: Chicago Sun-Times
"'Bitter Moon' is, by any reasonable standard, just awful (...) [It] gives the kind of performance that can only be explained by the fact that she is the director's wife. The good news: Mr. Polanski seems to know all this"

Janet Maslin: The New York Times
Show 3 more reviews

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Ranking Lists Position

9 Most Memorable Erotic Movies (77)
96 My Favorite French Movies (34)

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Bitter Moon

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