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Anatomy of Hell

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Anatomy of Hell
Theatrical release poster
FrenchAnatomie de l'enfer
Directed byCatherine Breillat
Screenplay byCatherine Breillat
Based onPornocratie
by Catherine Breillat
Produced byJean-François Lepetit
Starring
Cinematography
Edited byPascale Chavance
Production
companies
  • Flach Film
  • CB Films
Distributed byRézo Films
Release dates
  • 23 January 2004 (2004-01-23) (Rotterdam)
  • 28 January 2004 (2004-01-28) (France)
Running time
77 minutes[1]
Countries
  • France
  • Portugal[2]
LanguageFrench
Box office$345,365[3]

Anatomy of Hell (French: Anatomie de l'enfer) is a 2004 erotic drama film written and directed by Catherine Breillat, based on her 2001 novel Pornocratie. According to Breillat, Anatomy of Hell is a "sequel" to Romance.[4]

Plot

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Teetering on the edge of overwhelming ennui, a lonely and dejected woman pays a gay man to join her for a daring, four-day exploration of sexuality, in which both of them reject all convention and smash all boundaries while locked away from society in an isolated estate. Only when the man and woman confront the most unspeakable aspects of their sexuality will they have a pure understanding of how the sexes view one another.

Cast

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Production

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The film was adapted by writer/director Breillat from her novel Pornocracy. The sexually explicit film stars Amira Casar as "the woman" and porn star Rocco Siffredi as "the man". Leonard Maltin summarizes: "After attempting suicide in the bathroom of a gay disco, a woman hires the man who rescues her to spend four nights in her company, challenging him to 'watch me where I'm unwatchable'."[5]

Breillat allowed Casar to use a body double in the explicit sex scenes. Siffredi's performance, however, is all his own work.[6]

Siffredi recalled that when Breillat described one scene to him, she took his penis in her hand and explained to Casar how she should play the scene.[6]

Reception

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The film polarized critics. Leonard Maltin gave the film zero stars and said the film was "homophobic" and "unintentionally funny".[5] Roger Ebert stated: "I remember when hard-core first became commonplace, and there were discussions about what it would be like if a serious director ever made a porn movie. The answer, judging by Anatomy of Hell, is that the audience would decide they did not require such a serious director after all."[7]

BBC film critic Jamie Russell gave the film four stars out of five:

"The plot is hardcore thin: a woman (Amira Casar) cruises a gay club and pays broody stud (porn star Rocco Siffredi) to spend four nights with her. A challengingly explicit delve into the female body (often quite literally), it's a unique cinematic example of feminist existential porn.... Yet perversely, it's also one of the most groundbreaking films in recent memory in terms of both the explicitness of its sexuality and its commitment to such an austere intellectual discourse. No wonder Rocco looks so shell-shocked: this is sex not as comedy, but as the deepest, darkest male nightmare."[8]

The film went on to win Best Feature Film at the Philadelphia Film Festival.[9]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 26% of 35 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "Ponderous, pretentious, and—considering the subject matter—dull."[10] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 29 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[11]

References

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  1. ^ "Anatomie de l'enfer – Anatomy of Hell (18)". British Board of Film Classification. 4 November 2004. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  2. ^ "Anatomy of Hell (Anatomie de l'enfer)". Cineuropa. Retrieved 17 April 2022.
  3. ^ "Anatomy of Hell (2004)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 17 April 2022.
  4. ^ Spencer, Megan (1 January 2009). "A largely allegorical scenario positing that all men are inherently fearful of female sexuality". Special Broadcasting Service. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
  5. ^ a b Maltin, Leonard. Leonard Maltin's 2009 Movie Guide, p. 41
  6. ^ a b "Culture: Is it art or porn?". femalefirst.co.uk. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  7. ^ Ebert, Roger (11 November 2004). "Review of Anatomy of Hell". Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  8. ^ Russell, Jamie. BBC Movies review of Anatomy of Hell, BBC, 22 November 2004
  9. ^ Philadelphia Film Festival, Date: April 8 - April 21 2004
  10. ^ "Anatomy of Hell (2004)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  11. ^ "Anatomy of Hell". Metacritic. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
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