Anatomy of Hell

Anatomy of Hell
Directed by	Catherine Breillat
Screenplay by	Catherine Breillat
Based on	Pornocratie by Catherine Breillat
Produced by	Jean-François Lepetit
Starring	Amira Casar Rocco Siffredi
Narrated by	Catherine Breillat
Cinematography	Giorgos Arvanitis Guillaume Schiffman
Edited by	Pascale Chavance
Production companies	Canal+ CB Films CNC Flach Film
Distributed by	Rézo Films Sharada Distribuzione
Release dates	23 January 2004 (2004-01-23) (Rotterdam) 28 January 2004 (2004-01-28) (France)
Running time	77 minutes
Country	France
Language	French
Box office	$345,365

Anatomy of Hell (French: Anatomie de l'enfer) is a 2004 French erotic drama film directed by Catherine Breillat and written by Breillat based on her 2001 novel Pornocratie. According to Breillat, Anatomy of Hell is a "sequel" to Romance.

Plot

Teetering on the edge of overwhelming ennui, a lonely and dejected woman pays a gay man to join her for a daring, four-day exploration of sexuality in which both reject all convention and smash all boundaries while locked away from society in an isolated estate. Only when the man and woman confront the most unspeakable aspects of their sexuality will they have a pure understanding of how the sexes view one another.

Cast

• Amira Casar as the woman
• Rocco Siffredi as the man
• Catherine Breillat as the narrator
• Alexandre Belin as Blow-job lover 1
• Manuel Taglang as Blow-job lover 2
• Jacques Monge as Man in bar
• Claudio Carvalho as Boy with the Bird
• Carolina Lopes as Little Girl
• Diego Rodrigues (billed as 'Diogo Rodriques') as Little boy playing doctor
• João Marques as Boy Playing Doctor
• Bruno Fernandes as Little boy playing doctor
• Maria Edite Moreira as Pharmacist 1
• Maria João Santos as Pharmacist 2

Production

The film was adapted by writer/director Breillat from her novel Pornocracy. The sexually explicit film stars Amira Casar as "the woman" and porn star Rocco Siffredi as "the man". Leonard Maltin summarizes: "After attempting suicide in the bathroom of a gay disco, a woman hires the man who rescues her to spend four nights in her company, challenging him to 'watch me where I'm unwatchable'."

Reception

The film polarized critics. Leonard Maltin gave the film zero stars and said the film was "homophobic" and "unintentionally funny". Roger Ebert stated: "I remember when hard-core first became commonplace, and there were discussions about what it would be like if a serious director ever made a porn movie. The answer, judging by Anatomy of Hell, is that the audience would decide they did not require such a serious director after all."

BBC film critic Jamie Russell gave the film four stars out of five:

"The plot is hardcore thin: a woman (Amira Casar) cruises a gay club and pays broody stud (porn star Rocco Siffredi) to spend four nights with her. A challengingly explicit delve into the female body (often quite literally), it's a unique cinematic example of feminist existential porn.... Yet perversely, it's also one of the most groundbreaking films in recent memory in terms of both the explicitness of its sexuality and its commitment to such an austere intellectual discourse. No wonder Rocco looks so shell-shocked: this is sex not as comedy, but as the deepest, darkest male nightmare."

The film went on to win "Best Feature Film" at the Philadelphia Film Festival.

Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 26% rating based on 35 critics with an average rating of 3.56/10. The site's consensus states: "Ponderous, pretentious, and -- considering the subject matter -- dull." On Metacritic, the film has a 29 out of 100 rating based on 19 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

External links

• Anatomy of Hell at IMDb
• Anatomy of Hell at Box Office Mojo
• Anatomy of Hell at Rotten Tomatoes
• Anatomy of Hell at Metacritic