Storyline Zorg is a handyman working at in France, maintaining and looking after the bungalows. He lives a quiet and peaceful life, working diligently and writing in his spare time. One day Betty walks into his life, a young woman who is as beautiful as she is wild and unpredictable. After a dispute with Zorg's boss they leave and Betty manages to get a job at a restaurant. She persuades Zorg to try and get one of his books published but it is rejected which makes Betty fly into a rage. Suddenly Betty's wild manners starts to get out of control. Zorg sees the woman he loves slowly going insane. Can his love prevail even if it comes to the worst?
Writers: Philippe Djian, Jean-Jacques Beineix
Cast: Jean-Hugues Anglade
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Zorg
Béatrice Dalle
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Betty
Gérard Darmon
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Eddy
Consuelo De Haviland
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Lisa
Clémentine Célarié
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Annie
Jacques Mathou
-
Bob
Vincent Lindon
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Richard le jeune policier
Jean-Pierre Bisson
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Le commissaire (complete version)
Dominique Pinon
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Le dealer
/
Dope dealer (complete version)
Bernard Hug
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(complete version)
Catherine D'At
-
Claude Aufaure
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Le médecin
Louis Bellanti
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Mario
Dominique Besnehard
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Client pizzeria
Raoul Billerey
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Le vieux policier
Release Date: 7 November 1986
Filming Locations: Gruissan, Aude, France
Opening Weekend: $29,383
(USA)
(9 November 1986)
(2 Screens)
Gross: $2,003,822
(USA)
(1986)
Technical Specs
Runtime:|
(director's cut)
Did You Know?
Trivia:
Cameo:
[Frédéric Andréi]
When in Paris, Betty briefly goes to the rail tracks and Jules, the postman played by Frédéric Andréi in Diva, also directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix, can be seen walking past her.
Goofs:
Continuity:
After 30 minutes Betty throws Zorg's boss from the porch. She wears only a shirt, her bottom part is clearly nude. She goes inside and starts throwing things out of the window. Then she wears a slip
User Review
A visual treat and an epic tale not to be missed
Rating: 8/10
The Betty of the title is like a shooting star; she runs hot and bright, but
she's burning up. _Betty Blue_ chronicles a torrid affair between a
waitress and a handyman, initially in a broken down seaside resort. Betty
is both passionate and unstable, almost childlike, and initially it is
outsiders who bear the brunt of her anger - the piggish owner of the seaside
bungalows, for example, or the playboy publisher who rejects Zorg's
novel.
However, as Betty becomes more unstable and begins her descent into
insanity, this rage is increasingly turned inward into self-punishing and
self-mutilating actions. The same intensity that drives her sexuality and
her love for Zorg is, ultimately, her downfall.
Over the course of the movie, which is quite long (I saw the 178 minute
director's cut), Zorg goes to increasingly frantic lengths both to please
Betty and to protect her from herself. In this regard, certainly, Betty and
Zorg are almost identical, both going to extremes, in their own ways, to
defend their relationship from outside interference.
As well as providing a narrative that may be read and interpreted on several
levels, _Betty Blue_ is an exceptionally beautiful film in terms of
cinematography and mise en scene. Colour is used to breathtaking effect -
the blue floors of the piano shop, the yellow car, the yellow lighting which
makes it seem as though, regardless of time, it's always afternoon twilight.
Landscapes, city scenes, interiors are all set up and filmed
beautifully.
A tale of love, sex and obsession not to be missed.
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