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| School of Flesh (L'Ecole de la Chair) |
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  (6/10)
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Runtime: 105 |
| Public Rating: 10.00 (2 votes) |
Director: Benoit Jacquot |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Foreign Language/Drama |
Year: 1998 |
| Writer(s): Jacques Fieschi |
| Reviewed by: Goatdog |
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This movie is so French that it's almost unbelievable. Despite the fact that it's based on a novel by Japanese author Yukio Mishima, I just couldn't imagine it being done by Americans and being even nearly the same film. Roger Ebert suggested Susan Sarandon and Vincent Gallo as the older woman and the younger man, but I just don't think the film would be believable as an American film. We just don't act like that. Among other things, the class element of the film wouldn't come across in our (supposedly) classless society.
Isabelle Huppert plays Dominique, a wealthy beautiful woman in her 40s who catches the eye of a young, insolently handsome bisexual bartender at a club. The club's owner and sometimes pimp, Chris (played by Vincent Lindon), approaches her and offers her the young man's services. She refuses, but her interest is piqued. She returns the next night to meet Quentin (played by Vincent Martinez), the self-destructive young hustler. The two hit it off, or so the film wants us to believe. I have a problem with a lot of movies that present characters in a relationship as if we were just supposed to accept that they hit it off. If the film doesn't make the effort to convince me that there is some kind of spark, I have a hard time accepting the relationship. In this film, we are told that Dominique becomes instantly obsessed with Quentin, but the affection just isn't there. I can accept her obsession, but not her love, which makes the movie come off significantly different than it was probably intended.
Anyway, she quickly wants Quentin to move in, and he does, after she pays off his considerable debts to Chris. She wants to possess him completely; she follows him around like a private detective, interviews his past lovers, and spies on his family. He won't tell her anything, and I guess that makes her more interested than if he had just volunteered the information. She is a fashion designer, I think, and she gets him started on a modeling career. At a party, she introduces him to two characters who will play a large part in their futures: her former lover Cordier (played by Bernard Le Coq) and Marine (Roxane Misquida), the daughter of one of her clients.
The film is about her efforts to create a normal relationship with someone who is incapable of it. In a way, she seems incapable of it too, as evidenced by her divorce, her erratic behavior concerning Quentin, and the stunt she pulls late in the film when she discovers some of Quentin's secrets. I wonder if she would have been so odd if he had told her the things she wanted to know. Their relationship is never easy; they never have good moments, and they always seem to be engaged in a power struggle.
While I liked the film, there was a distance about it that kept me from really connecting with the characters. I ended up feeling bad for Quentin, because he really never had a chance to have a "normal" relationship. I also felt bad for Dominique, because she had bad taste in men.
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