The Moon in the Gutter

The Film

Fellow travellers often end up at very different locations. When Cinema du Look was wowing those who like their appearances glossy enough to hide the lack of substance beneath, Luc Besson and Jean Jacques Beneix were praised for their flashy and hip movies. Over 25 years later, Besson is a wealthy producer of Euro-action flicks like Transporter, District 13 and even the supremely nonsensical Danny the Dog, and Jean Jacques Beneix is still that pretentious bloke who did Betty Blue and then disappeared into TV.

Time has not treated the two men equally, and from my perspective the more interesting film-maker has been the one who has suffered. Beneix's films have a passion and absurdity that seems insanely poetic to my eyes whilst Besson's are style without content. For all the seemingly surreal compositions of a film like Diva, it possesses far more soul than any of Besson's work and despite the artificiality of their construction, Beneix's films seem much truer and meaningfully expressive than Besson's.The Moon in the Gutter is full of nonsense and romantic desperation. The mise en scene is so heavily stylised and figurative that for all the efforts at a gritty setting this is a neon lit squalor full of unfeasible characters and emotions too big for the screen whatever size you make it. Imagery bursts forth out of the dirt and sleaze and visual contrast reaches passionate extremes that leave every moment swinging between desire and destruction.

Literally filmed between Leone and Fellini at Cinecitta, his follow up to Diva was panned on release and regarded as an elaborate folly, yet watching it now it seems close to the most vivacious updating of a classic vehicle like On The Waterfront. Borrowing from cinematic familiarity throughout, Beneix twists and heightens situations so that drama gives way to instinctive poetry. So when the film begins with a body discovered defiled and fetishised, the camera catches the beautiful reflection of the moon in a bloody puddle. That image lingers and repeats as we meet Gerard, the brother of the victim and his obsession with revenge takes the visual cue and colour of red throughout.Gerard's obsession has stopped him living. His squalid job, his squalid brother and his squalid father complete with broken ambulance - care is dead in Gerard's world until he meets Loretta, a contradiction in red and colour co-ordinated sports car. Can love make him whole again, will his past drag him down, and which is stronger - obsession or dreams?

Beneix's ideas are extraordinary. The Russian roulette of films like The Deer Hunter becomes the feat of eating through a block of ice, marriages happen in the moonlight of cathedrals sat on the edge of a cliff, and any element of whodunnit is completely abandoned for a story of the battle within a single soul. His actors represent rather than emote and this is as auteurist a vision as you will ever see, with the parts of the enterprise from the cast to the photography to the music simple servants of the director's vision.I loved the despair, the vertiginous dreams, and the sense of a reality that could even belong to a different planet. Depardieu's role is much like what Gabin did for Marcel Carne in his masculine but earnest endeavour, and Kinski has never seemed more terrifyingly enticing. With all this talent oriented to the director's vision, The Moon in the Gutter seems like a kind of romantic madness and is possessed of a suicidal beauty, its the work of a tyrannical, passionate and forgotten talent. It is unforgettable and despite the director's desire to re-cut it, possibly the best film of his career.

Technical Specs

This is a real opportunity for a gorgeous treatment with the eye popping use of colour and the expressive shades of the film, unfortunately the transfer here is not quite up to the task. Detail is not impressive, the image is on the soft side and fleshtones are far from natural. There's no confidence in the handling of the vivid colours and there is an unintended murkiness in the transfer, which doesn't distract from the material's tone but lessens the depth of what we can see. Edges are supported only slightly and the print does not look contrast boosted to me. The overall quality is kinda ok, but this could look so much better.The sounds does seem to carry a bit of background noise and hum at times and clarity is not first rate in the sole audio option here which sadly comes with burnt in subtitles. I am unaware of other English language DVD releases so you might like to overlook the shortcomings of the disc but this film screams out for better treatment.

Special Features

This is an all-region disc and it comes with an interview in English with Beneix. Beneix seems quite appalled by some of the behaviour of his younger self but the main issue with this piece is that his English is not very good. The director constantly gropes for meaning and can only find clumsy expressions and inelegant approximations for his elaborate and intriguing work. It's a real pity as the tales of telling Fellini he couldn't come to his set speak of a quite amazing character that would come out more clearly in his native tongue perhaps.

The photo gallery contains 34 images in colour and black and white taken during shooting, the gallery is navigable. The included trailers are for the whole Beneix collection that Cinema Libre have released and a single one for Betty Blue.

Summary

For me, this came as a revelation, the kind of film that might become a favourite with a few more viewings. This presentation is limited and I hope someone in the UK takes this as an invitation to issue a better version.

Sponsored Review