Sex Is Comedy

Director: Catherine Breillat
Year Released: 2002
Rating: 1.5

Breillat lets us in on her "creative process": namely, convincing two actors to have simulated sex on screen for her film Fat Girl. Anne Parillaud looks a lot like her - they could be sisters - but in casting someone to play 'herself,' she's also given Parillaud numerous irritating monologues that drag the picture down. Fat Girl is a fine film about young love - I will certainly grant it that - but Breillat-the-auteur is simply too swept up in herself, having her doppelganger yell, squeeze her actors and actresses and try to be the center of all attention. Like it or not, she's the closest France has to Marguerite Duras right now ... only considerably less elegant and less enlightening.