Georges Bataille Movies
An attractive widow finds her attentions turning to her teenage son in a troubling manner in this drama from France. Pierre (Louis Garrel) is a moody 17-year-old who is spending the summer with his parents at their summer home in the Canary Islands. While Pierre isn't especially close to his father (Philippe Duclos), he enjoys a warm relationship with his mother, Hélène (Isabelle Huppert) -- almost too warm, as her affection for him subtly strains the boundaries of typical familial behavior. When Pierre's father dies unexpectedly in an auto accident, his emotional dependence on Hélène grows, while her desire for her son does the same. Though Pierre finds himself attracted to several girls his own age summering on the island, he finds it increasingly difficult to reconcile his curiosity with the growing sexual tension between mother and son. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Isabelle Huppert, Louis Garrel, (more)
- 2003
Writer/director Andrew Repasky McElhinney's follow-up to the critically successful A Chronicle of Corpses is entitled Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye, but it is not based on Bataille's historically scandalous novella. It's clear that McElhinney's film falls more into the "inspired by" category. The film opens with file footage of a woman giving birth through an episiotomy. This is accompanied by a voice-over that briefly describes Bataille's life and the furor his work caused. We are then transported to a dingy basement nightclub in some unknown era where a young man (Sean Timothy Sexton) manipulates his "joystick" while watching two exotic dancers (Courtney Shea and Melissa Elizabeth Forgione) in elaborate costumes. Sexton is later seen mistreating a black servant (Claude Barrington White), who is dressed in bondage gear. White answers the front door to find a skinny white man in a sailor suit (Querelle Haynes) and the two engage in consensual rough sex. They are violently interrupted. Later, Forgione awakens in another room, wearing a bloody bandage over her eyes. She fumbles her way down a dark hallway where she discovers Shea in a dog cage. Forgione frees Shea and the two have relations with a big blue sex toy. They are interrupted by Sexton. Later, presumably the next morning, a battered looking Shea walks down a decrepit hallway and up a flight of stairs, again and again. Eventually, she reaches a room from which she witnesses the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Then she encounters Sexton and Shea. McElhinney dedicates his film to French silent serial maker Louis Feuillade (responsible for Judex and Les Vampires) and to pornographer Stephen Sayadian (Café Flesh). ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Mitchell Martin, Meliss Elizabeth Forgione, (more)
- 1974
A young girl and her lover attempt to free an innocent girl being held prisoner by her demented father with tragic results. Simona (Laura Antonelli) is watching a bullfight when her mind drifts back to a traumatic childhood experience. She was on the beach with her lover Georges (Maurizio Delgi Esposti) when she realized that someone was watching them. That someone was Marquise Marcelle de Paille (Margot Saint'Ange), a young girl whose father was driven to madness after her mother died prematurely. Marcelle's father will do anything to prevent his daughter from leaving him, and when Simona and Georges attempt to come between the pair, all hell breaks loose. Based on the novel by The Story of the Eye author Georges Bataille. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laura Antonelli, Maurizio Degli Esposti, (more)
