''Bluebeard'' (french: Barbe Bleue) is a 2009
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
fantasy film
Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered a form of speculative fiction alongside science fiction f ...
written and directed by
Catherine Breillat
Catherine Breillat (; born 13 July 1948) is a French filmmaker, novelist and professor of auteur cinema at the European Graduate School. In the film business for over 40 years, Catherine Breillat chooses to normalize previously taboo subjects in ...
and starring
Lola Créton
Lola Créton (born 16 December 1993) is a French actress. Créton began her career at the age of 10, appearing in the short film ''Imago'' (2004). She is known for her lead roles in the films '' Goodbye First Love'' (2011) and '' Something in th ...
. It is based on the classic
fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...
''
Bluebeard
"Bluebeard" (french: Barbe bleue, ) is a French folktale, the most famous surviving version of which was written by Charles Perrault and first published by Barbin in Paris in 1697 in ''Histoires ou contes du temps passé''. The tale tells the st ...
'', by
Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault ( , also , ; 12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703) was an iconic French author and member of the Académie Française. He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tales ...
.
Plot
In the 1950s, Catherine toys with her older sister, Marie-Anne, by reading her the story of
Bluebeard
"Bluebeard" (french: Barbe bleue, ) is a French folktale, the most famous surviving version of which was written by Charles Perrault and first published by Barbin in Paris in 1697 in ''Histoires ou contes du temps passé''. The tale tells the st ...
which scares her. As Catherine rereads the story, the film moves to 1697, where two sisters, Marie-Catherine and Anne, have just lost their father. With the loss of their father the two have no dowries, and so agree to attend a party thrown by Lord Bluebeard, in his search for a new wife. Although it is rumored that Bluebeard has murdered all of his previous wives, as they all disappeared within a year after the marriage, Lord Bluebeard and Marie-Catherine, the younger sister, develop a connection and are soon married. Despite their age difference, the two develop a close bond, and Bluebeard dotes on his new young wife. He must leave her periodically to attend to far off business and when he does he gives her the keys to the castle and tells her to enjoy herself while he is gone. She appears to miss him terribly and is overjoyed when he returns.
The second time he must leave, he gives her the keys again, as well as a small gold key, which he says will open a room in the castle, but that she is forbidden to use it and enter the room. That night, she is overcome with curiosity and opens the room to find all of Bluebeard's past wives murdered and hanging. While in the room she drops the key, staining it with blood from the floor. Bluebeard returns unexpectedly the next day and discovers the blood upon the key and accuses her of entering the room. He tells her she must die, however she begs for time in the tower to make her peace with God. Bluebeard allows this, and through several other delays and distractions, she buys herself time, until two musketeers arrive and apparently behead Bluebeard.
Throughout the film, the scenes switch back and forth between the two girls reading the story, and the two sisters living it. The film closes with the older girl, Marie-Anne falling to her death as her little sister Catherine finishes the story despite Marie-Anne begging her not to, as it scares her. As Catherine cries, their mother enters (the same actress who plays the mother to the two sisters in the story) and the scene switches back to Marie-Catherine with her hands on Bluebeard's head on a platter.
Cast
*
Dominique Thomas as
Barbe Bleue/Bluebeard
*
Lola Créton
Lola Créton (born 16 December 1993) is a French actress. Créton began her career at the age of 10, appearing in the short film ''Imago'' (2004). She is known for her lead roles in the films '' Goodbye First Love'' (2011) and '' Something in th ...
as Marie-Catherine, Bluebeard's wife
*
Daphné Baiwir as Anne
*
Marilou Lopes-Benite as Catherine
*
Lola Giovannetti as Marie-Anne
Release
Theatrical release
''Bluebeard''
premiered
A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition.
A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its first ...
at the 2009
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...
.
Critical response
Review aggregation website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
gives the film a score of 78% based on 36 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10.
At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an
average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...
score of 73, based on 12 reviews.
J. Hoberman of ''
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
'' gave the film a positive review, writing "Psychologically rich, unobtrusively minimalist, at once admirably straightforward and slyly comic, Catherine Breillat’s ''Bluebeard'' is a lucid retelling and simultaneous explanation of Charles Perrault’s nastiest, most un-Disneyfiable nursery story."
Manohla Dargis from ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' wrote, "All fairy tales have morals and the one in Ms. Breillat's ''Bluebeard'' is brutal, suitably bloody and, like all good retellings, both similar to and different from earlier iterations."
Keith Uhlich from ''
Time Out
Time-out, Time Out, or timeout may refer to:
Time
* Time-out (sport), in various sports, a break in play, called by a team
* Television timeout, a break in sporting action so that a commercial break may be taken
* Timeout (computing), an enginee ...
'' rated the film 4/5 stars, calling it the director's "funniest and most immediately pleasurable film to date". In his review, Uhlich commended the film's cinematography, performances, and "critique of the scourge of patriarchy".
The film was not without its detractors.
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for ''Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...
from ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' awarded the film a grade C, criticizing the lack of mystery, and suspense, while also commending Breillat's direction.
References
External links
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Bluebeard: Interview with Catherine Breillat by Electric Sheep Magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bluebeard (2009 film)
2009 films
2009 fantasy films
2000s erotic thriller films
Films based on Bluebeard
Films directed by Catherine Breillat
Films set in the 1690s
Films set in the 1950s
Films shot in France
French fantasy films
2000s French-language films
French independent films
French erotic drama films
Erotic fantasy films
French erotic thriller films
2000s French films