Week 43/2025

A writer, playwright, filmmaker, surrealist  and, above all, a poet, Jean Cocteau is undoubtedly a remarkable figure in the history of film. With his 1946 cinematic fairy tale La belle et la bète, screening on Tuesday at Kaskcinema, he ventured into new thematic and stylistic territories. Drawing inspiration from psychoanalysis and the work of artists such as Gustave Doré and Vermeer, as well as the tropes and symbolism of the surrealists, Cocteau creates his own mysterious and magical diegesis. In a typical Cocteau manner, he bends reality to his vision, using an abundance of make-up, special effects, lighting effects and mirrors.

In the year 2000, the French director Virginie Despentes and writer/director Coralie Trinh Thi triggered a nationwide controversy with their film Baise-moi. The shock waves were even felt in le Conseil d’État, which classified the movie as X-rated, prompting a reaction from filmmakers such as Claire Denis and Godard and opening up a debate on censorship. Screening this Wednesday at Cinematek, Baise-moi tells the story of Manu and Nadine, two women who are put into a marginalized position and attempt to take control over their own fate. Manu and Nadine are respectively portrayed by pornographic actresses Raffaëla Anderson and Karen Lancaume, a deliberate choice by Despentes as she wanted the many sex scenes to be authentic. Embarking on a nihilistic journey of loveless sex and pointless violence, Manu and Nadine have no goal other than to leave a trail of catastrophe. This has led to comparisons with Natural Born Killers and Thelma & Louise, although Baise-moi is often dismissed as a “trashy” version of these classics.

Lastly, on Friday, De Cinema is screening the 1983 film Entre tinieblas, translated to English as Dark Habits, an early work by director Pedro Almodóvar. Yolanda, a nightclub singer who has had little luck in life, seeks refuge in a convent, only to find a hidden world of rampant hedonism. Almodóvar fuses religion with themes such as sexuality, lesbianism and addiction to hard drugs, which effectively established his reputation as an enfant terrible and earned him several accusations of blasphemy – even from the Cannes Film Festival.