By: Lauren Rutherford Category: FILM Date: 12.Jul.2010

Murder, disappearances, and mystery all in a sixty second clip. Director Catherine Breillat’s French film Bluebeard, or Barbe Bleue, lures audiences in with key elements of an ideal thriller. Little do we know part of the mystery of Bluebeard is how an exciting trailer spawns from such a bland film.

Based on the preview, the audience believes they are in for something special: a movie adaptation of Charles Perrault’s gruesome fairytale overflowing with gore, suspense, and subtitles. Unfortunately, the exciting trailer does not make this film a thriller.

Marie-Catherine (Lola Creton) and Anne (Daphne Baiwir) are sisters in 17th century France, and nearly ineligible for marriage after their father’s death catapults the family into poverty. Searching for a new spouse, old Lord Bluebeard (Dominique Thomas) looks past their monetary circumstances, but the family dismisses him at first, aware he is suspected of killing all of his previous young wives. Why the family suppresses their initial worries about Bluebeard’s murderous tendencies and allows Marie-Catherine to pursue him is never made apparent.

Despite the trailer’s trickery, the film does not center on the marriage between Marie-Catherine and Bluebeard, nor does it even begin to investigate his past until the very end. The first half of the movie is Marie-Catherine’s pre-adolescent life, which involves everything but thrill. Viewers watch her study, attend the funeral, dye her clothes black, eat, and perform other monotonous tasks. The first forty minutes could have been compressed to ten.

Given the brevity of the film, Bluebeard should have dove into the action, or advertised the film as a different genre. Still, as the film is based on fiction and not fact, I am uncertain who Bluebeard would appeal to.

During parts of Marie-Catherine’s story, two young girls read Perrault’s fairytale as narration. The effort only leads to confusion. At first I believed the girls to be younger versions of the protagonists as they have very similar names (Marie-Anne and Catherine as oppose to Marie-Catherine and Anne). Based solely on what the girls wore, I eventually realized they lived in the fifties and later confirmed my belief with the film’s synopsis.

Unfortunately, the dual eras caused more unwise decisions when one of the girls from the fifties replaces Marie-Catherine in the most intense scene of the film- when Bluebeard’s past is finally revealed.

Because the film is treated as a thriller, you expect a build up to the fateful scene. Regrettably, since it takes half the movie for the awkward union between the young girl and ugly lord to occur, the film is desolate of all action until the last fifteen minutes.

It is then, in those crucial final moments, that we hope a dramatic ending can salvage the first hour of false advertising. However, choppy editing or perhaps poor screenwriting eliminate all thrills and leave us viewing menial events we could have done without. Namely, we observe Bluebeard repeatedly ascend and descend a dim, winding staircase for what feels like three minutes, but witness no struggle between any of the characters.

Not that a lack of action matters, as the actors seem unable to convey emotion – even when swords press against their throat and they face imminent death. Bluebeard relied on the excitement of the fairy tale, but delivered nothing itself, except, of course, for the trailer.

What appeared to be a heart-pounding thriller, focusing on Bluebeard’s dangerous nature, provoked little emotional response or connection with the film. There is only so much excitement expressionless characters in a badly lit staircase can bring.

Bluebeard
Director: Chatherine Breillat
Writer: Catherine Breillat
Starring: Lola Creton, Dominique Thomas
Runtime: 80 Minutes
Country: France, 2009
US Release Date: 26 March 2010