From “Diva” to “Betty Blue.” Jean-Jacques Benex's talent will be missed in the future

"Betty Blue" synopsis

One day, a free-spirited girl, Betty, appears to Zorg, a middle-aged man who used to aspire to be a novelist but now makes ends meet by doing odd jobs. The two, who are intensely attracted to each other, live together and spend their days indulging in sex. . An intense and painful love story that depicts a shocking and destructive relationship between two people.

Index

• ``Les Enfants Terribles'' in France in the 1980s
• The single-minded love between a man and a woman becomes Benex's masterpiece.
• It's fun to compare the strong personalities with "Diva"

``Les Enfants Terribles'' in France in the 1980s

In the 1980s, there was clearly a new talent on the rise in French film. The three people who were described as ``Enfant Les Enfants Terribles,'' a reference to the title of Jean Cocteau's novel, were Luc Besson, Leos Carax, and Jean-Jacques Benex.

The Nouvelle Vague wave created by Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, and others has passed, and the style of new directors who pursue stylish images that make full use of color and are entertaining is now `` It was also called "Neo Nouvelle Vague" and "Nouvelle Nouvelle Vague," and it succeeded in capturing the hearts of movie fans in Japan as well, riding on the mini-theater boom.

Luc Besson's name became known with his second feature film, `` Subway '' (1984), which was shocking in its innovative sense of capturing the underground space of near-future Paris. After that, Besson went on to make films that were loved by many people, including `` The Big Blue '' (1988) and `` Léon: The Professional '' (1994), but after establishing the production company EuropaCorp, he continued to work as a director. , the masterpieces of his heyday have decreased, and his role as a producer has become the main focus.

"Léon: The Professional" preview

Leos Carax was hailed as the ``return of Godard'', and after working on the black-and-white film ` `Boy Meets Girl '' (1983) and the bold color scheme of Paris in `` Dirty Blood '' (1986), he worked on `` The Lovers on the Bridge'' . He became a very popular director with ``Koibito '' (1991). However, after that, the time span between his next works became longer and he was no longer able to create new masterpieces.

And Jean-Jacques Benex. Although he continues to make films, he has not released any feature films he has directed since 2001's `` The Woman in the Blue Dream ''. Apparently they are filming documentaries for TV... However, there is no doubt that Benex's first full-length work, `` Diva '', was the work that sparked the creation of ` `Les Enfants Terribles, '' which created an era.

A postman secretly records the singing voice of an opera singer whose records are not released at a concert. The multiple suspense stories surrounding the tape are intertwined with a pure love story, and the characters that appear are also extremely unique. `` Diva '' (1981) was mesmerizing with every element, including items such as a large number of pieces of jigsaw puzzles, beautiful images, and shocking violence, and Benex gained worldwide recognition.

However, the following film, The Moon in the Groove (1983), featured big names such as Nastassja Kinski and Gerard Depardieu, but it was preceded only by mysterious aesthetic visuals, resulting in a confusing story, and received mixed reviews (rather than (The majority said “no”). The true test of her true worth was in her third work, ``Betty Blue.''

The single-minded love between a man and a woman becomes Benex's masterpiece.