Roman Polanski is responsible for this 'crime passionnel'-drama where one can trace some influences from 'Ultimo tango a Parigi' ('The Last Tango in Paris'/'Le dernier Tango à Paris') by Bertolucci (among other cinematic and literary influences).
In this quartett by Polanski we meet a British 'gentleman' by the name of Nigel Dobson (Hugh Grant) and his wife Fiona (Kristin Scott Thomas), a perfect and somewhat boring and bored couple on a cruise, heading for India.
They in turn meet Oscar (Peter Coyote) and his French wife Mimi (Emmanuelle Seigner).
Oscar is a writer never having been published but he still believes that this soon will happen when the world (of publishers) notices his genious.
His wife doesn't seem to have any other occupation than taking care of her husband, not least as he is in a wheelchair.
All of a sudden Oscar starts to tell Nigel the story about his life with Mimi, a rather cruel story about a sado-masochistic couple living out their dreams and nightmares. Nigel is to polite to refuse listening and on the same time this, in a metaphorical sense, 'Victorian' man, is curious and the stories arouse and excites him. This to such a degree that he forgets his wife who starts to flirt with an Italian Don Juan.
Oscar tells Nigel how he met Mimi by chance and how he in her found a sex partner willing to try almost everything within the sexual field and ready to push the boundaries further and further, gradually humiliating herself, even in public.
Oscar is gradually getting tired of her devotion and when he wants to leave her, she begs him in a degrading way to stay. He does so and gives her what she obviously wants, namely sadistic scorn and abuse until she's only a shadow of her former self.
He finally fools her and abandons her on a flight to Martinique, after having promised Mimi a form of 'rehabilitation' and 'real' and tender love.
Oscar is later having a car acccident and Mimi returns, visiting him at the hospital and there she makes him act in a way that worsens his handicap and renders him dependent both on the wheelchair and Mimi.
The latter - after them being married - now starts to abuse Oscar and meets with other men when she wants to, without him being able to do anything about it.
After this story the evening on the boat continues with a drama between the four, ending in tragedy or perhaps a logic finale.
In spite of the attempts to create an erotic and suspensful ambience (not succeeding in doing so though), I think that the screenplay lacked profundity and interesting turns.
The 'revenge' motive when Mimi treats her husband as he had treated her, is all too foreseeable and not at all surprising but rather 'flat' as idea.
I had expected a much more interesting plot than this, wherefore the film becomes rather tedious.
This in spite of good actors. On the other hand, not even a good actor can save a poor screenplay, not always anyway.
In this quartett by Polanski we meet a British 'gentleman' by the name of Nigel Dobson (Hugh Grant) and his wife Fiona (Kristin Scott Thomas), a perfect and somewhat boring and bored couple on a cruise, heading for India.
They in turn meet Oscar (Peter Coyote) and his French wife Mimi (Emmanuelle Seigner).
Oscar is a writer never having been published but he still believes that this soon will happen when the world (of publishers) notices his genious.
His wife doesn't seem to have any other occupation than taking care of her husband, not least as he is in a wheelchair.
All of a sudden Oscar starts to tell Nigel the story about his life with Mimi, a rather cruel story about a sado-masochistic couple living out their dreams and nightmares. Nigel is to polite to refuse listening and on the same time this, in a metaphorical sense, 'Victorian' man, is curious and the stories arouse and excites him. This to such a degree that he forgets his wife who starts to flirt with an Italian Don Juan.
Oscar tells Nigel how he met Mimi by chance and how he in her found a sex partner willing to try almost everything within the sexual field and ready to push the boundaries further and further, gradually humiliating herself, even in public.
Oscar is gradually getting tired of her devotion and when he wants to leave her, she begs him in a degrading way to stay. He does so and gives her what she obviously wants, namely sadistic scorn and abuse until she's only a shadow of her former self.
He finally fools her and abandons her on a flight to Martinique, after having promised Mimi a form of 'rehabilitation' and 'real' and tender love.
Oscar is later having a car acccident and Mimi returns, visiting him at the hospital and there she makes him act in a way that worsens his handicap and renders him dependent both on the wheelchair and Mimi.
The latter - after them being married - now starts to abuse Oscar and meets with other men when she wants to, without him being able to do anything about it.
After this story the evening on the boat continues with a drama between the four, ending in tragedy or perhaps a logic finale.
In spite of the attempts to create an erotic and suspensful ambience (not succeeding in doing so though), I think that the screenplay lacked profundity and interesting turns.
The 'revenge' motive when Mimi treats her husband as he had treated her, is all too foreseeable and not at all surprising but rather 'flat' as idea.
I had expected a much more interesting plot than this, wherefore the film becomes rather tedious.
This in spite of good actors. On the other hand, not even a good actor can save a poor screenplay, not always anyway.
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