La Belle Captive - DVD (French

"La Belle Captive" (1983) is directed by Alain Robbe -Grillet. The film is about a man who becomes enchanted with a beautiful woman whom he meets at a bar. At a later time he comes across her again but she is bound and injured on the street. This dream like film takes its cues from the French surrealist painter Rene Magritte. The structure of the film as well as images of the artist are incorporated into the film. For those that enjoyed "Last Year at Marienbad" which was scripted by Robbe-Grillet, or David Lynch's "Mulholland Dr.", will probably also enjoy this surrealist mystery thriller.

There are no special features included, but the quality of the film is very good, and is presented in Dolby Digital sound with English subtitles.

This film is about the many realities we experience in our lives, and, the many influences on what we experience.

The Director intended to make this film appear to be chaotic so as to provoke our thoughts about what we define as "reality." It appears chaotic because he is trying to show us how each person experiences our own personal reality based upon many intervening influences such as: memory; passion; intellect; life's work; our goals; and co-existence with a spiritual world (including influence from spirits (ghosts or manifestations from people who are demised)).

Alain Robbe-Grillet (an esteemed French author) wrote the novel "La Belle Captive" to critically explore our experience of consciousness. He is considered the leading author in the French noveau roman (new novel, or, new literature) genre. Robbe-Grillet (and his wife - Catherine Robbe Grillet), for over a half century, have exposed the subjectivity of our perception of ourselves, our lives, and our perception of those we encounter (in both the real world and in the spiritual world). Robbe-Grillet is best known for his international award winning 1961 screenplay in Last Year at Marienbad (The Criterion Collection)

This exploration is more common in film than we might think at first reflection. Even American film has explored the co-existence of our lives with the spiritual world. Mulholland Dr. British filmmakers have explored how our belief about what happened in the past influences our belief about what is happening in the present. Eyes Wide Shut (Unrated Two-Disc Special Edition) Many French filmmakers have explored the connection between our unconscious sexual drives, and, our mystical connections with the spiritual world. A l'Aventure; Gradiva (also directed by Robbe-Grillet).

Kurosawa explored, early in 20th century film, how each of us has a different memory of the same event. Consequently, our different memories of the same events influences our experience of the present (and the future). Rashomon (The Criterion Collection)

This film is enjoyable if you understand that it is not supposed to be rational. It is not too distant from the theater of the absurd. It is not a film to take literally. It is a film that is, at least a little, a light-hearted treatment of some serious and arcane philosophy. It is intended to illuminate how irrational, random and chaotic the real world may actually be as opposed to how we experience it. If you think you might enjoy a completely comic treatment of the same subject, please allow me to suggest Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in Love and Death (I think it's one of his funniest and best films).

I give this film five stars because, having been made in 1983, it was decades before its time. It is also one of the best films that challenges us to question our perception of "reality" as being something that is completely subjective. Hence, since it is completely subjective, we have the power within our own minds to shape our own consciousness.

What is the point of the film? The answer is in the last line of the narrator. In our subjective reality, between worlds, the angel of death comes to us in many forms (including "smokin' hot" Gabrielle Lazure).

I like the names from the persons in this film and the surreality . Its not more to write for me, because i have seen the film before.