If a David Lynch acolyte with a jones for art history and a basic working knowledge of the canon of Ingmar Bergman decided to shoot a casually sleazy, cautionary tale of intellectual and sexual midlife crisis, it would likely resemble French director Alain Robbe-Grillet’s Gradiva, a flatly shot, self-serious 2006 erotic thriller that isn’t quite lurid enough to succeed as an Angel Heart-type piece of provocation, and isn’t psychologically perspicacious enough to satiate arthouse audiences.
A gothic murder mystery that the film’s DVD cover bills as “in the style of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo,” Gradiva centers around English historian John Locke (James Wilby, a sort of Gaelic cross between Matthew Modine and Timothy Hutton), who comes to Morocco to work on a study of painter Eugene Delacroix. Embarking on a search for a rare series of engravings, Locke sees a beautiful woman dressed in white wandering the narrow streets of the ancient medina, and becomes obsessed with unearthing her identity and tracking her down. Locke’s newly taken young lover, Belkis (Dany Verissimo, above), tries to warn him off both his academic search and his obsession with the mystery blonde, whom he comes to find out is named Leila (Arielle Dombasle). But Locke is convinced these elements somehow hold the key to some groundbreaking thesis work, and so it may be too late for him to escape from this dangerous labyrinth of swirling desire and intrigue.
Robbe-Grillet, director of the infamous, Oscar-nominated Last Year at Marienbad, trades in an astonishingly flat and unengaging visual style, and elicits wildly uneven, often derisible performances. (Farid Chopel is especially noteworthy in the negative sense, even in a fairly functionary role.) The filmmaker thinks nothing of casually shooting an outdoor cafe sequence where an actress has her nipple hanging out of her blouse for the entire scene, but titillation seems back-burnered with respect to the mock intrigue of the plot, which means there’s lots of wandering dusty side streets and run-ins with authority figures both real and perhaps contrived. Gradiva represents Robbe-Grillet’s final film (he passed away in 2008, at 85 years of age), and it’s a grand-scale misfire that doesn’t work as either a legitimate treatment of the themes of quixotic desperation and obsession it wishes to explore or a sex-tinged, exotically set thriller.
Housed in a red plastic Amaray case, Gradiva comes presented on a region-free disc with a 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that — despite coming from a brand new striking of the negative — is sullied by a bit of grain, if no problems with edge enhancement. Audio comes in the form of a Dolby digital stereo track. The film’s original theatrical trailer is included along with extensive production notes and cast biographies, plus a seven-minute preview trailer spotlighting other Mondo Macabro releases. The chief supplemental extra, though, is a 31-minute interview with a red scarf-clad Robbe-Grillet, in which he discusses both his cinematic influences more generally (Jean-Luc Godard, Michelangelo Antonioni and surrealist master Luis Buñuel, naturally) and the movie specifically. To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. D+ (Movie) B (Disc)
It’s a shame that here in the States much effort is put into releasing Robbe-Grillet’s more recent efforts. Everyone knows that the earlier stuff is always the best, and that’s no exception when it comes to this author/director’s work. I felt as disappointed in the DVD release of his 1983 La Belle Captive as perhaps you are in Gradiva. Why release these titles when such mindbending visions as Trans-Europe Express, Eden and After, and The Man Who Lies languish in obscurity? I suspect it’s because the label putting out Gradiva, Mondo Macabro (who specialize in putting out some of the best MONDO stuff around), knows where the money is when it comes to their audience. From the promo picture provided, they know that sex+art sells better than just art any day of the week.
I will have to get a copy of Gradiva, however. (Sigh). If only because I haven’t seen it and it’s the only other title directed by Robbe-Grillet that’s available to us. . .
No, the reason we put out Gradiva (apart from it being a fine film) is because it was possible to actually do a deal with the rights’ holder. We’ve tried many, many times, believe me, to license the earier ARG films. But it seems French licensors aren’t interested in money. Or not ours, anyway. And, by the way, I think it’s a great film. As I do La Belle Captive.
Umm, this review is idiotic. Who could trust anyone who refers to Robbe-Grillet as the director of “Last Year at Marienbad” which was directe Alain Resnais two years before Grillet’s first film.
Grillet wrote the screenplay for “Marienbad” but it’s a distinctly different task.