Anatomy Of Hell on DVD (2004)

Pretentious Arthouse Rubbish

Laurie from East Grinstead, England , 25/03/2005

Like her previous films like Sex Is Comedy, Breillat makes another pretentious arthouse movie and has it masqurading as art.This time an exploration of gender politics and sexuality. (That's what it says on the box, anyway).If you like Catherine Breillat's sexual explotations, you will love this. As for me, it left me stone cold.

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Shocking, erotic and highly entertaining!

frenzy-films.co.uk from London, England , 12/05/2005

Dont you just love the movies that France have been churning out lately? Irreversible, Seul Contre Tous (even though Noe is Belgian) and Dans Ma Peau are all fantastic efforts from the home of the croissant. Anatomy of Hell is fantastic but not for the faint of heart! Starring renowned Porn star Rocco Silfredi, this is the story of a lonely womans determination to involve a gay man with the female anatomy over a span of nights. Written like poetry, every line rolls off the last and gives prolonged meaning to the darker side of sex. If you are a fan of French cinema and of Catherine Breillet's other works then this is well worth picking up...but be warned it is extremely explicit so strictly mature viewing is recommended!

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Sucking on a tampax? No, thank you.

Kalina from London [Highly rated reviewer] , 03/10/2008

Oh dear. Super pretencious and irritating female character, contradicting hersle in her not so wise monolougues. This film offends any intelligent feminists or females in general, there's no need to make someone drink a glass of water with a period tampax floating inside, this is not the way to teach a man about secrets of femininity, if anything send them to assist during the birth if you want hard core experience to do with female body/organs/life and strenght, at least birth is natural, bloody tampax sucking experience is defianately not.

Someone should ask Erica Jong to be involved in this pathetic little production at least would have been wittier. Waste of time.

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Utterly fascinating, but utterly wrong-headed

Savage from London, England [Highly rated reviewer] , 29/09/2006

The problem with this film is that the writer-director, Catherine Breillat, in trying to indict the male of the species for innate misogyny, seems to believe that everyone has the same point of view as herself. Every woman must feel violated by the male gaze; every male must be going about trying to possess every female he sees, while simultaneously fearing their creative power, their menstrual blood, their 'douceur'. She may find this isn't true.

Having said which, her film still becomes quite fascinating as it progresses, helped no end by an extraordinary performance from Rocco Siffredi - an old collaborator of Breillat's - absolutely belying his past as a straight-ahead porn star. He can't really act, and his Italian accent is distractingly obvious to all, but he somehow conveys such genuine vulnerability (even while violating 'la femme') that you feel drawn in despite oneself.

Academically speaking, then, 'Anatomie de l'enfer' is unpersuasive, but as a piece of cinema it is a strange and compelling work, challenging a number of taboos in stimulating fashion.

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Boring

A customer from Yorkshire , 24/08/2008

This was complete drivel. A total snorefest.

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Pretentious Arthouse Rubbish

Laurie from East Grinstead, England , 25/03/2005

Like her previous films like Sex Is Comedy, Breillat makes another pretentious arthouse movie and has it masqurading as art.This time an exploration of gender politics and sexuality. (That's what it says on the box, anyway).If you like Catherine Breillat's sexual explotations, you will love this. As for me, it left me stone cold.

Read all highest rated reviews