Dir. Catherine Breillat, 2008, France, 80min, DCP, Color
With Dominique Thomas, Lola Créton, Daphné Baiwir, Marilou Lopes-Benites
In French with English subtitles

Bluebeard, the classic French folktale, tells the dark and bloody story of the young bride of a rich lord—one who is rumored to have killed his previous wives. The film opens in the 1950s, with a young girl taunting her sister by reading gory parts of Bluebeard aloud. As she reads, the story moves to the 17th century, where Bluebeard (Dominique Thomas) has just married the young Marie-Catherine (Lola Créton), with plans to murder his new wife once he tires of her.

In the hands of director Catherine Breillat (Last Summer, Romance, Fat Girl, The Last Mistress), the fairytale gets a feminist reworking and a surprise ending—as Marie-Catherine learns to wield power.

“All fairy tales have morals and the one in Ms. Breillat’s Bluebeard is brutal, suitably bloody and, like all good retellings, both similar to and different from earlier iterations.” – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

“Haunting!“– Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“Advancing the consciousness of female being that rarely makes it to the screen“– Armond White, New York Press

“Psychologically rich, unobtrusively minimalist, at once admirably straightforward and slyly comic.” – J. Hoberman, Village Voice

“Breillat delivers a new spin on an old tale that doesn’t underestimate the female spirit.” – David Parkinson, Empire Magazine