4.5 stars !
actually “Bitter Moon” is quite similar to “Exotica” ( 1994 ) that i reviewed yesterday
in that there is A LOT of erotic dancing in both movies but it isn’t really hot - i never got excited - and in fact the woman playing Mimi isn’t even attractive …
but the drama is good. acting is good.
aside from the focus on Sadism in “Bitter Moon” it is basically the same movie as “Exotica” - but it gets that extra half a star versus “Exotica” for the very well developed sadism angle … and it’s just better movie overall.
“Bitter Moon” was done by somebody who understands what REAL sadism is like. It makes “Audition” look like a joke by comparison:
Audition’s idea of sadism is sticking needles into somebody’s eyeballs - whereas in “Bitter Moon” sadism is emotionally torturing somebody until their skin breaks out from the stress, then loudly telling them they have a pimple in front of everybody at a party … which is what REAL sadism looks like ( source: my father is a sadist )
that isn’t to say that sadists don’t also enjoy physically harming - for example my father enjoys pouring boiling water on bugs - but sadists usually have to find more subtle ways to torture people, and that’s of course who they really want to torture …
very good film - 4.5 stars.