Rent Brief Crossing (2001)

Cheap and not particularly cheerful - Brief Crossing review by CP Customer

Typically Catherine Breillat film chock full of cynical musing abut the nature of men (and, sometimes, women), the debasing quality of relationships, and some sex. The very low budget and cast of essentially just the two main characters could make for something intimate and real, but the overly long soliloquies make it resemble anything but normal interaction between two people.

Sometimes it's best to save the essays for a book. Watch Breillat's sumptuous and engaging The Last Mistress instead.

Some interesting ideas & brave performances which are let down by terrible production values - Brief Crossing review by Timmy B

Thomas is a slightly shy 16 year old who is catching a ferry from France to England, travelling solo for the first time. On board the ship, he starts a conversation with Alice, a beautiful and vivacious thirty-something who has just got out of a passionless & dull marriage. As the night goes on, the two grow closer before going to Alice's cabin...

As much as I have given this film 3 stars, that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. For me, it was a film which experimented with and was unafraid of exploring sexuality at both ends of the spectrum (Alice, a cynical woman who has no doubt had multiple sexual experiences over her life, with varying levels of satisfaction; Thomas, a young virgin whose testosterone is through the roof & meets a sexually frustrated woman who gives him the opportunity to lose his virginity.)

Both performers are also fearless in their acting & bravery, which Catherine Breillat takes full advantage of. After nearly an hour of slowly-building sexual tension, to then not have the payoff to this would render the film relatively pointless (and I have seen many films where this is the case, the most recent being One Fine Morning.) The intimacy is everything you would expect it to be: tender, awkward & honest.

However, there are some downsides to the film, the most prominent of which is the unbelievably poor quality of the film's production values. The cinematography/film quality is absolutely terrible in pretty much every way. The colours are lifeless, bleached out & grainy; the tone & contrast like looking at an old VHS which has been left sat in the sun for a year. There also, for a section of the film, is a white dot on screen which sticks out like a sore thumb, distracting you, as well as some dirt which is on the camera lens. Sound is equally bad as well.

And as has been alluded to in the other review, it is at times quite hard to put up with the continual bile of man-bashing which is vomited out of Alice's mouth, full of deep cynicism which might have looked good on the page but in practice would make most people (men & women,) get up and leave. For a woman who seems determined to have a sexual experience, as well as taking Thomas's virginity, she does pretty much all she can to sabotage things.

But the biggest surprise is left to the end. It leaves you with lots of questions, as well as making you really think about what you have just witnessed over 90 minutes. I enjoyed it, despite the film's issues. If you can tolerate some of the more annoying elements of the script, there is a good film to enjoy.