SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Martin Bradley A woman hires a gay man to come to her house and watch her while she lies naked on her bed. Catherine Breillat makes films that are deliberately provocative and not necessarily of any value. What audience, I wonder, had she in mind when she made "Anatomy of Hell"? French intellectuals who like to navel gaze? Surely this appalling codswallop wasn't meant to be taken seriously? As you might guess not a great deal happens but Breillat wouldn't be Breillat if there wasn't some actual 'real' sex, (the fact that our hero is gay doesn't seem to stop him from getting down to business with our heroine). The rest of the time they sit and talk a load of old rubbish. Proof that women are just as capable of making bad 'dirty' pictures as their male counterparts.

tonymurphylee Catherine Breillat is a master filmmaker in my opinion. Her films have always challenged me and made me think for months after I've watched them. However, this film challenged me in a whole new way. ANATOMY OF HELL is a film that challenged my stomach. The film tells the tale of a woman who asks a gay man to poke around and look into her labia. Does this sound pleasant? Well, considering that Catherine Breillat directed it, don't expect it to be anything east to watch. In fact, this is probably her hardest film to watch. I sat through FAT GIRL, ROMANCE, and BRIEF CROSSING, but I was unable to sit through ANATOMY OF HELL. The film grossed me right out. Yes, we do get some extreme close ups of the labia and it's uses and it's complexities, but we have our faces shoved into it so much that at some point we do become terrified. It is this part of the human body that is so intricate and unique. It is where all life begins. However, it is such an unpleasant and horrific thing to look at that the audience will grow rather unnerved by the whole thing and most people will not be able to take it and will turn it off or leave the theater. So Catherine Breillat has, in the end, outdone herself. She has now made a film that is too challenging. I don't regret seeing what I saw, but in the end I don't wish anybody else to watch it.

chrisallinson This is the male view of Breillat's "Romance" (1999) and has been dubbed 'unwatchable' by the critics. Breillat's sensibility is the woman I wish as life-partner for my sons (in their mid 20's) - so contemporary, as Republicanism in the US (Conservatism here in Canada) and Sharia law the Muslim conservative creed, holds woman as grossly inferior - fecund and to be controlled! Its all about 'power and fear' for these men.A woman hires a man to watch her when she is unwatchable (at night, over four nights). Goya-like the woman opens herself as to a painter - the man, unable to see art fails even his primary mission: to watch the unwatchable, consequently, his life is changed as yours will be and mine now is! 30 years ago, I went through many of the complex subtleties around menstruation as power - men are potent only through the vagina/uterus, we cannot bear life, woman's exclusive purview! The bar scene with buddy after the last night is as illuminating as it gets from a BS male macho perspective - the man ultimately reduced to tears of frustration, the woman returned to the sea.After watching be sure to view the director interview on the DVD special features - 65 minutes of background/backdrop that is intellectually of the highest order - a true high-art film maker! Shot in Portugal, on the Mediterranean, the 'twilight' over water is totally different to the 'palette' (used in a similar metaphor-movie, "The Door in the Floor") of the US East Coast beach - the Hamptons on Long Island, New York. (I lived a block from The Shore in New Jersey for a couple of years.) The Mediterranean light is more 'evocative', purple and dark blue, than the 'melancholy' sand haze and light blue of The Shore twilight.

Prabhakaran So First film I ever saw of made by Cathrine so far. The director is famous already(that has something to do with what your next plot/movie is to talk about) and that influenced the film to some extent.Content is very raw material. The director tries to fill that up with philosophical dialogs. In her interview she says it was an encounter between the FIRST two adults. But actually they are not Adam and eve in the story. They are two fully grown-up adults who have passed many years of sexual life from adolescent period. Both the adults enter into the film with some set of preconceived notions/experiences in sex life (for e.g. he is having same-sex orientation). Whatever they react and discuss would be influenced primarily by their past sexual life. Hence this film could not be considered as a discussion/analysis/view of misogyny or a general view of how men see women. Oversimplification of misogyny. Every human is mixed with both masculine and feminine characters; If Cathrine just treats the one who penetrates and overpowering is always man and one who always waits patiently and looks fragile is female then she could be wrong there.She repeats a dialog 'watch me where I am unwatchable'. What is 'unwatchable'? Nothing in the film is unwatchable (there is no mass massacre/brutality/genocide is there; all that is discussed is about perception of personal intimacy). By that 'unwatchable' word I derive that there is some exaggeration/mystification stressed on the point of female orgasm. Christine is known as a feminist. The flash-back shots of young female, looks like a biased point of view of men (and the young doctors); This could be considered as the female point of view of that character itself; then the film would not reach the philosophical heights as it claims in the dialogs.But still this is a complete honest work of art. It touches the core of realism by the acting and the direction. I watched the film only once. I never felt like watching a pornography throughout the movie. If there are more scenes dealing the nuances of the situation it would have added strength to the discussions. Watch it alone with your partner (perhaps your partner might be able to throw some light while watching the film).