Das Spiel mit dem Feuer

A series of elegantly kinky erotic tableaux, strung together by a mock-thriller plot, this may be Alain Robbe-Grillet's most linear and accessible film. Mind you, an 'accessible' Robbe-Grillet is like a 'good' Ben Affleck movie. Strictly a relative term, and allowances have to be made.

The plot (as far as I can discern one) has Philippe Noiret as a corrupt tycoon teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Desperate to raise a few francs, he decides to fake the kidnapping of his own daughter (Anicee Alvina) and pocket the ransom. He locks the girl up for safe-keeping in a deluxe Art Nouveau brothel, where he himself is a regular client.

In real life, this 'brothel' is the interior of the Palais Garnier - for years the theatre of the Paris Opera. This may be symbolic in some highly obscure way; offscreen voices keep warbling snatches of Il Trovatore. The randy Robbe-Grillet, meanwhile, indulges in all his usual fetishes: torture, lesbianism, necrophilia... One young lady has a 'close personal friendship' with a mastiff hound.

Participating in the fun and games are a young and exceptionally lovely Sylvia Kristel and French soft-porno legend Joelle Coeur. The images are so glacially beautiful, they look like a Helmut Newton photo album sprung to life. Yet are we to take this as a serious avant-garde experiment in the style of Alain Resnais? Or is it just a slice of arty smut? Robbe-Grillet himself seems not to know the answer. Or if he does, he's keeping it well-hidden.

Alain Robbe-Grillet is an accomplished writer of novels (like "Jealousy") and screenplays (like "Last Year in Marienbad"), but in the 1970's he turned to the sex genre not because he was really that interested in making sex movies, but because it gave him a forum he wouldn't have otherwise had to continue making his experimental, surrealist art films (and to have them seen by anybody). In this respect he was kind of like his fellow countrymen Jean Rollin and Walerian Borozyx and (some would say anyway) the Spaniard Jess Franco.

It's hard to describe this movie. It involves a kidnapping, a brothel, a strange criminal gang in bowler hats, and a bourgeoisie couple and their maid, but even the characters are fluid and seem to transform into each other, and cinematic time and space are so re-arranged that it seems to take on the illogic of a dream. If you enjoyed "Last Year at Marienbad", you'll probably enjoy this, but if you're not such a fan of that movie there's also the added attraction of a bevy of Euro-beauties like Anicee Alvina, Agostina Belli, Joelle Coeur, and Sylvia Kristel all getting (more-or-less) naked. So this a good movie for the arty and/or the horny.

Unfortunately, it is not currently available in English (though I doubt it would make any more sense), but they recently released one of Robbe-Grillet's other later films, "La Belle Captive" on a subtitled DVD, so hopefully it won't be too long until they get around to this one.

A rather strange movie, and almost a comedy. The time frame for the setting is strange, since a calendar in a police office is 1974, but some of the clothing worn by some of the henchmen would say WWII. Young women are abducted, stripped and set to be in a brothel for the enjoyment of others, in all manner of delights. Of course, this was made in 1975, so it is rather implied than shown, which probably would not be the case if made today, but that would also give it a more severe rating. And there is without context, some marching soldiers dressed right out of WWII. The scenes at the brothel are stunning, and there certainly is no shortage of nudity but in a more artistic setting than amorous. Over all, it is a fun movie to watch, and laugh at in may cases. But best for the eye candy, as the plot is rather silly.

I really thought I knew what I was getting into when I sat to watch this; the premise seems clear enough. Golly, was I wrong. Of course, I should've known better, given some of the other titles that writer and director Alain Robbe-Grillet has been involved with in one capacity or another - I loved a couple, and was simply flummoxed by others - but here we are nonetheless. Characters periodically address the camera directly; despite the serious subject matter, the film as an extremely wry, dry comedy, or in the very least a sideways arthouse flick that plays fast and loose with reality and refuses to establish a tone that's any more than halfway toward "sober." For good measure throw in absurdism that rather recalls Monty Python, including light and jaunty music, playful repetition of shots (and rearrangements within such repetition), and beats and ideas that fly in from out of nowhere. Then there's the fact that the organization's activities and movements work flawlessly, with seemingly no one uninvolved; moreover, between the sets, sequencing, and editing generally, the movie as very light regard for even for spatial awareness, time, or narrative flow. At least as much as 'Glissements progressifs du plaisir' or 'La belle captive,' and possibly more so, 'Le jeu avec le feu' is a bizarre trip of a viewing experience.

Bizarre - but also entrancing. I won't pretend for one moment that I entirely understand what Robbe-Grillet was doing here, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't like it. This is strongly characterized by an odd whimsy rather reflecting the "just so" sensibilities of fairy tales, taking place within a self-contained world, more than any picture of mainstream cinema. In fact, given the quasi-surrealist nature of the presentation, and indeed of Carolina's experiences, maybe 'Alice in Wonderland' is a fairer point of comparison, for this is all over the place and while there's indisputable rhyme and reason to it, these are kept secret and mysterious for the audience. Even standing next to the filmmaker's other works, and relative to many others that I've watched, 'Le jeu avec le feu' bounces all over the place in its storytelling and even simply in its imagery from moment to moment, mixing infrequent somber notes (kidnapping, trafficking, bondage and sex slavery) with the abstruse, the outrageous and silly, the sprightly and jesting, and the outright weird. Somewhere in here there are even discernible themes about how men, broadly, and particularly the wealthy and powerful, will prey upon women under any circumstances whatsoever if they have the means and opportunity to do so. Or is it just that the film itself is misogynist and exploitative?

However one wishes to look at it, I don't think there's any disputing that it's splendidly well done such as it is. The cast treated this as any other job, and give fine performances; if anything it's simply hard to concretely assess the acting in light of the wildly offbeat nature of the picture. The production design and art direction are both utterly gorgeous,not to mention heavily detailed, splitting the difference between imaginative drama and outright fantasy; the costume design, hair, makeup, and even props are unmistakably lovely. Bob Wade's editing is genuinely terrific, as precise and fluid as it is often vehement, and Yves Lafaye's cinematography is crisp and vivid. Even the lighting is employed to gratifyingly sharp ends, nevermind those stunts and practical effects on hand. And for as mystifying as Robbe-Grillet's vision may be, with scene writing, characters, and a narrative that exist outside the confines of any meaningful notion of reality, for better or worse it's something one really just needs to see for themselves - including shrewd direction that ties together every shot, scene, and performance with a masterful, practiced hand. Words like "inscrutable" or "impenetrable" are a step or two too far, but there's no denying the expertise that put this together in every cpacity, and still I can only respond to the whole with "what?"

Between the subject matter, the near constant nudity and regular sexual content, and of course the oblique, peculiar approach to the story, this could only ever find favor with a decidedly niche audience. Even given a thorough outside dissection of the feature I don't know that I'd ever completely understand what I'm supposed to be taking away from it, for Robbe-Grillet has created a strange slice of cinema that is something all its own, points of reference be damned. Yet for all that it is, and might be said to represent - including some eyebrow-raising sound cues, and that wide-ranging but flavorful music - I'd plainly be lying if I said 'Le jeu avec le feu' weren't enjoyable in its way, and uniquely engrossing. Why, there even comes a point within the last few minutes when the plot and the overarching ethos seem to careen into another movie altogether ("I didn't understand the script at all. But I think that's what it was."), and still I'm taken by the totality of it all. So yes, one should be keenly aware of what it is they're getting into before they even think about watching, and even for those who are open to all the wacky possibilities that the medium has to offer it may meet with uneven results at best. But if you're receptive to the most far-flung and out-of-the-ordinary experiences, 'Le jeu avec le feu' is definitely one of a kind.

This film is an "Unidentified Erotic Object". The scenario is strange and labyrinthine. We often get lost in this labyrinth, hesitating between real, dreamlike or fantasized scenes. The casting is exceptional, with Jean-Louis Trintignant and Philippe Noiret, two huge stars of European cinema as well as Joëlle Coeur and Sylvia Christel, two icons of erotic movies. The aesthetics of the film are impeccable. Each scene is composed like a painting or like an opera, the sets are sumptuous, the girls are gorgeous and the photography is splendid . It is therefore a real high level visual delight. The perversions to which the residents of the mansion are subjected are filmed with such a level of aestheticism and artistic composition that they appear acceptable. Which is a real "tour de force". We should not seek to discuss the verisimilitude or the absurdity of certain script or visual choices, we just have to get carried away in this sweet erotic delirium which travels to the limits of reality and the strangest fetishistic fantasies without ever falling into vulgarity or ugliness. On the contrary, everything is beautiful! And that is already a reason good enough to watch this film by agreeing to leave in the locker room its prejudices on what is acceptable or not in the matter. In the midst of the many European erotic productions of the 70s, this film is a little gem to discover!