Fatal And Foolish Obsessions
Malle is a mesmerizing storyteller. He unfolds this disturbing, violently sexual and luxuriously appointed tale of amour fou with coolly gripping precision. But even as the movie holds you in its spell, you may not believe a word of it. For the catalyst at the dubious heart of all this primal thrashing about, the oh-so-enigmatic Anna, is a literary fantasy figure impossible to take. Seductive as Binoche is, there’s no way she can make Anna real: she’s Hart’s fantasy of a male fantasy of a femme fatale....