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Evan Shively (Perseus271)

I went to university in 1989, so of course, like pretty everyone my age, I had a Betty Blue poster on my wall (along with The Big Blue and Blue Velvet and The Queen is Dead). And like most of my year, I fell in love with the film at one of the late night showings at Oxford's Phoenix Cinema.It wasn't until 20 years later that I finally read the book. It is so so different - the film has an epic sweep, all massive skies, moody saxophone and impossibly gorgeous colours as befits the Cinema du Look. But the book is a relentless stranglehold of intensity as the nameless narrator, who sort of plays with the idea of being a writer but doesn't really care about much other than drinking beer and hanging out falls under the spell of Betty, who is determined that he will make something of the talent she believs he possesses. Betty is his opposite, never happy except when she's on the move, constantly wanting more - not more in material terms, but more of life itself. She is one of the great existential heroes in literature, hungry for life itself, and ultimately driven mad when life refuses to keep up with her hunger for it. The ending has a strange diversion about a bank robbery that adds an element of farce missing from the film. I can't quite work out whether this gives added poignancy or detracts from an intensity that becomes almost unreadable, as we follow Betty's final descent into madness and (it's not a spoiler, we know from the word go that this is heading in only one direction) death. Betty personifies the way the world takes beauty and freedom and slowly cages and crushes it. A haunting, mesmerising, exquisite exploration of the glorious fragility of life.

A story of slavery, set in the southern U.S. in the 1930s.

An angel tires of overseeing human activity and wishes to become human when he falls in love with a mortal.

<p>Nymphomaniac (stylised as NYMPH()MANIAC onscreen and in advertising) is a 2013 European two-part erotic art film written and directed by Lars von Trier. The film stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin, Shia LaBeouf, Christian Slater, Jamie Bell, Uma Thurman, Jean-Marc Barr, Willem Dafoe and Connie Nielsen. The plot follows Joe (played by Gainsbourg and Martin), a self-diagnosed "nymphomaniac," who recounts her erotic experiences to a bachelor who helps her recover from an assault. The narrative chronicles Joe's promiscuous life from adolescence to adulthood and is split into eight chapters told across two volumes. The film was originally supposed to be only one complete entry, but, because of its length, von Trier made the decision to split the project into two separate films. Nymphomaniac was an international co-production of Denmark, Belgium, France, and Germany.</p>

A frigid young housewife decides to spend her midweek afternoons as a prostitute.

1967 drama movie directed by Luis Buñuel

An actress attempts to convince a director how she's perfect for a role in his upcoming production.

A young American studying in Paris in 1968 strikes up a friendship with a French brother and sister. Set against the background of the '68 Paris student riots.

When tradition prevents her from marrying the man she loves, a young woman discovers she has a unique talent for cooking.

<p>Jules and Jim is a 1962 French New Wave romantic drama film, directed, produced and written by François Truffaut. Set before and after World War I, it describes a tragic love triangle involving French Bohemian Jim, his shy Austrian friend Jules, and Jules's girlfriend and later wife Catherine.</p>

A lackadaisical handyman and aspiring novelist tries to support his younger girlfriend as she slowly succumbs to madness.

1986 film directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix

The continuation of Joe's sexually dictated life delves into the darker aspects of her adulthood, obsessions and what led to her being in Seligman's care.

A self-diagnosed nymphomaniac recounts her erotic experiences to the man who saved her after a beating.

A group of New Yorkers caught up in their romantic-sexual milieu converge at an underground salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality.

The secret lives of five suburban couples living in Sydney reveal both the fetishes and the repercussions that come with sharing them.

A passionate love story set against a backdrop of sexual freedom, loosely based on the relationship between 19th-century authors Pierre Louÿs and Marie de Régnier.

Murphy is an American living in Paris who enters a highly sexually and emotionally charged relationship with Electra. Unaware of the effect it will have on their relationship, they invite their pretty neighbor into their bed.

Events over the course of one traumatic night in Paris unfold in reverse-chronological order as the beautiful Alex is brutally raped and beaten by a stranger in the underpass.

An intense psychodrama which explores the link between sex and creativity through the story of a screenwriter whose main character threatens to take over not just his creative life but his sanity. Is she muse, lover or thief?

Two friends on a summer holiday in Spain become enamored with the same painter, unaware that his ex-wife, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, is about to re-enter the picture.

A hotel room in the center of Rome serves as the setting for two young and recently acquainted women to have a physical adventure that touches their very souls.

Various lives converge on an isolated island, all connected by an author whose novel has become inextricably entwined with his own life.

American jazz trumpeter, composer and singer

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