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The PackageDemystifying
the Middle Ages has been a longtime preoccupation among European and Asian
filmmakers, who over the years have given us medieval-minded downers like
MARKETA LAZAROVA (1967), ANDREI RUBLEV (1969), Roman Polanski’s MACBETH
(1971), JABBERWOCKY (1977) and FLESH AND BLOOD (1986).
BEATRICE (known as THE PASSION OF BEATRICE in the Bertrand
Tavernier is one of France’s top directors, having made a variety of films
spanning a variety of genres, from mystery (THE CLOCKMAKER, 1974) to science
fiction (DEATHWATCH, 1980), cop thriller (L.627, 1992), war (LIFE AND NOTHING
BUT, 1989), and even a G-rated family drama (A SUNDAY IN THE COUNTRY, 1984).
1987’s BEATRICE appears to be his nod in the direction of horror, with
its many allusions to witchcraft, werewolves and zombies, as well as the
presence of Italian genre pioneer Riccardo Freda, to whom BEATRICE is
dedicated, as 2nd assistant director.
The latter helmed classics like I, VAMPIRI (1956), THE HORRIBLE DR.
HITCHCOCK (1962) and THE GHOST (1963), and according to Tavernier Freda’s
expertise in stretching limited budgets was invaluable in crafting the present
film. |
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The StoryBeatrice
is a beautiful, strong-willed and angelic young woman looking after her family
homestead while anxiously awaiting the return of her father Francois de
Cortemare, who for years has been off fighting the British.
One day she learns he’s set to return and is overjoyed, ignorant of
the true significance of the fact that he’s scheduled to show up on the night
of a full moon. Cortemare
returns home, and reveals himself to be an embittered, brutish monster by
mercilessly bullying everyone in sight. He
reserves the full brunt of his swinishness for Beatrice, as he, having given
himself over fully to evil, can’t stand her angelic nature.
He rapes her repeatedly and forces her to fast for three days atop a
tall tower (as, an early flashback informs us, Cortemare himself did as a
child). Finding herself pregnant,
Beatrice gets her brother to kick her in the stomach to abort the child, but
her father intervenes. He makes his
son the object of a MOST DANGEORUS GAME-styled hunt, at the end of which the
slimeball orders his terrified house wenches to ravish the boy.
This is too much for Beatrice, who runs off into the woods. Her
escape, alas, proves short-lived, as all she sees on her sojourn is more
unpleasantness, including a witch burning and several young girls hanging from
trees. She returns to the
homestead, determined to put her father out of his misery for good. |
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The DirectionTavernier,
as he’s always readily admitted, never had much time for things like
structure or discipline, which is all too apparent here (as it is in most of
his other films). The film is
wildly uneven, with erratic pacing and an inflated 132-minute running time that
only serves to underline the thinness of the narrative. But
BEATRICE does have real power in its physical recreation of a rural Middle Ages
setting, which is thorough and impressively naturalistic without ever seeming
the least bit showy or self-conscious. Equally
striking are the performances of Julie Delpy as Beatrice and THE VANISHING’S
Bernard Pierre Donnadieu as her monstrous father.
Delpy, just eighteen when the film was made, has an authentically
angelic presence that offsets the vileness of Donnadieu, essaying a character
that can safely be counted among the most disgusting in cinema history.
Their respective clash of wills makes for riveting, though far from
uplifting, viewing. This film is
among the bleakest of all time, with activities that, in addition to the
general nastiness affected by Donnadieu, include a newborn child smothered to
death in snow, a witch burned at the stake and young children seen hanging from
a tree. Even the final cathartic
murder of Donnadieu by Delpy is presented as just another depressing chapter in
the unending cycle of rottenness that is her life. |
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Vital StatisticsBEATRICE
(a.k.a. THE PASSION OF BEATRICE)
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