“SEX, EYES, & MENTAL ILLNESS”

By Raymond Benson

What made the 1986 French picture, Betty Blue (also called 37° 2 le matin, aka 37.2°C in the Morning) so striking were three things—the explicit sex on display, the mesmerizing eyes of lead actress Béatrice Dalle, and the film’s frank depiction of mental illness and its devastating effect on a relationship.

Director Jean-Jacques Beineix had burst onto the scene with the superb, quirky, and new New Wave crime picture, Diva (1981) that embraced not only the French New Wave of the early 1960s, but the early 1980s pop New Wave of music and visuals that were exploding in all mediums at that time. Diva was a critical and commercial hit with Western audiences, although Beineix’s follow-up, Moon in the Gutter (1983), was not. The filmmaker bounced back, though, with Betty Blue, which received a deserved Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film.

Based on a popular French novel by Philippe Djian, the story concerns a writer named Zorg (Jean-Hugues Anglade) who works various odd jobs to support himself while he struggles to pen a novel. He meets and falls in love with the fiery, unpredictable, and incredibly sexy Betty Blue (Dalle). Throughout the tale, we witness the ups and downs of their relationship through the couple’s nomadic moving around France, meeting and befriending colorful characters, getting into fights, and slowly spiraling toward tragedy. This is because Betty is seriously mentally ill (probably bi-polar, although that term was not much in use in the 1980s). Betty’s mood swings can be violent and shocking, and it’s a challenge for Philippe to continually cover for her, as well as care for the woman and keep her safe.

Both Anglade and Dalle deliver courageous and dynamic performances, and Jean-François Robin’s cinematography exhibits vibrant colors and painterly images. This is a gorgeous-looking picture, made even more attractive by the (often full-frontal nude) physicality of the two leads. While the picture is an exquisite examination of a passionate love affair, it’s also a disturbing scrutiny of a mental affliction that few people understood in those days.

When Betty Blue was first released, it was a two-hour movie. Beineix released a “director’s extended cut” in 2005 that runs three hours—and that is the version presented in the Criterion Collection’s new Blu-ray release. It’s curious why Criterion did not also include the original shorter cut, for I’m not sure the extra hour of runtime added anything of special value.

The high-definition digital restoration, approved by Beineix, is terrific, though, and it comes with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack (and the quirky musical score by Gabriel Yared is a highlight). There is a new English subtitle translation.

Supplements include an hour-long documentary on the film from 2013 with Beineix, Dalle, Anglade, associate producer Claudie Ossard, DP Robin, and composer Yared; a vintage featurette on the making of the picture that includes an interview with original novelist Djian; Le chien de Monsieur Michel (“Mr. Michel’s Dog”), a short film by Beineix from 1977; a vintage TV interview with Beineix and Dalle; Dalle’s screen test; and trailers. The booklet contains an essay by critic Chelsea Phillips-Carr.

Betty Blue may not be the perfect date movie, but it does serve to illustrate in believable and visceral tones a passionate but volatile man/woman relationship that will fascinate any lover of cinema.