Unquestionably one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Roman Polanski (Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby, The Pianist) turns his talents to the realm of sexual perversity and its emotional toll. While on a Mediterranean cruise, Nigel and Fiona (Hugh Grant and Kristin Scott Thomas) find a young French woman named Mimi (Emmanuelle Seigner) crying in a bathroom. Mimi's paraplegic American husband Oscar (Peter Coyote) forces Nigel to listen to how Oscar and Mimi fell in love--as well as how they discovered kinky erotic games and finally arrived at a curdled, mutual sadism. Bitter Moon veers erratically from salacious erotica to black comedy to clumsy psychodrama, but individual scenes have a definite punch. Coyote chews the scenery with glee, Seigner (Polanski's wife, adding a hint of lurid autobiography) flounders moodily, and Grant seems miscast, but Scott Thomas gives the movie some actual dignity. --Bret Fetzer
2.
On a cruise to Istanbul in celebration of their seventh wedding anniversary, uptight British couple Nigel (Hugh Grant) and Fiona (Kristin Scott Thomas) encounter American expatriate Oscar (Peter Coyote), a wheelchair-bound unpublished novelist traveling with his young French wife, Mimi (Emmanuelle Seigner). Nigel is immediately drawn to the sexy but distant Mimi, and Oscar, sensing the other man’s fascination with his wife, takes him aside to recount in exhibitionistic detail the sordid tale of their once-passionate love affair, which gradually deteriorated into a series of increasingly sadistic and degrading sex games. In flashback scenes, it soon becomes clear that the self-serving Oscar represents the corrosive element in the couple’s relationship--though the tables will eventually be turned. BITTER MOON provides several jarring twists, the last of which is especially unexpected, and no one escapes unscathed from this titillating yet excruciating menage-à-quatre. Polanski’s erotic melodrama received mixed reviews but earned ardent praise from fans who appreciated the filmmaker’s return to the themes (first treated in 1962’s KNIFE IN THE WATER) of dark sexuality and thinly veiled violence in intimate relationships.
Academy Award-winning director Roman Polanski explores the sexy side of obsession and the wild side of romance in this outrageous look at the dark side of love. Starring Hugh Grant (About A Boy, Bridget Jones's Diary), Peter Coyote, Emmanuelle Seigner and Kristin Scott Thomas.
A mild-mannered man (Hugh Grant) attempts to rekindle the sexual fire in his marriage while on a vacation cruise. The only problem is he falls in love with another woman.
Offbeat and original, this voyage of wild obsession puts a whole new twist on the concept of marital bliss. Featuring dazzling performances and nasty comic moments, Bitter Moon is a hilarious walk on the wild side.
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