BITTER MOON
France/UK, 1992, 139 minutes, Colour.
Peter Coyote, Emmanuelle Seigner, Hugh Grant, Kristin Scott Thomas, Victor Banerjee, Sophie Patel, Stockard Channing.
Directed by Roman Polanski.
Bitter Moon is adapted from a novel whose French title indicates Poison Moon, the opposite of a honey moon.
Roman Polanski and his frequent collaborator, Gerard Brach, along with John Brownjohn, have adapted the novel into an effective psychodrama. While the framework is a voyage on a liner to Istanbul, the bulk of the film is shown in flashback.
Peter Coyote portrays Oscar, a would-be Ernest Hemingway, with an inheritance, trying to write novels in Paris. After some years, he has become somewhat bitter. A chance encounter with a young woman on a bus who has no ticket, becomes an infatuation. Emmanuelle Seigner (Polanski’s wife) portrays this young woman, a dancer who has jobs as a waitress, who is grateful to the writer, becomes infatuated with him, participates in a whole lot of sexual activity. However, the writer tires of her but she becomes possessive. He exercises power and control and finally ousts her after an abortion.
Oscar, the writer, is telling the story on board to a young Englishman, played in his typical fashion by Hugh Grant. Kristin Scott Thomas, also in her later familiar style, portrays his wife. The Englishman becomes fascinated with the story, fascinated with the young woman who is on board. The writer is manipulating the Englishman into a relationship with his wife. However, in listening to the story, he finds that the wife has been cruel, incapacitates the writer who is confined to a wheelchair. There are some surprises before the ending, especially in terms of the relationship between the wife and the English woman and a violent ending of the film.
Polanski had explored some of this kind of material in his early films of the 1960s, especially Cul de Sac and Repulsion. This film could be compared with Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut which appeared seven years later – both films with themes of intense sexual relationships, sensuality, domination and control, exercise of power.
Polanski has made a number of classic films including Rosemary’s Baby, Macbeth, Chinatown. He continued making films right into the 21st century, winning an Oscar as best director for The Pianist in 2002.
1.This film among those of Roman Polanski? Psychosexual drama? The display of sexuality and sensuality? Insight into psychology and relationships?
2.The framework of the voyage, Nigel and Fiona and their seven-year anniversary, going to India, seeking some kind of silence and renewal in India? Finding Mimi sick? Leading to Oscar and the psychological games? The flashbacks, Oscar’s character, Mimi, their world, their relationships, Nigel caught up in the story, returning to listen? The culmination with Mimi and Fiona? The deaths? The fatalistic ending?
3.The fatalistic, even nihilistic ending for Oscar and Mimi? The confrontation and challenge for Nigel and Fiona?
4.The boat, the cabins, the dining room, social life, the clubs?
5.Paris, as a character, the range of locations, apartments, streets, clubs?
6.The range of songs, the popular songs of the period?
7.The Indian, his daughter, his comments about India and noise and silence? Fiona telling the stories to his daughter? Their being glimpsed at the end - a symbolic picture of innocence? Hope?
8.Nigel and Fiona, the audience identifying with them, especially with Nigel listening to Oscar, wanting to listen or not? His British reticence? His being fascinated, yet repelled? Curiosity, seduced, disillusioned? The end, Fiona and her flirting on the voyage, the dance with Mimi, the sexual encounter, Oscar’s reaction to it? Nigel’s shock? The ending with Nigel and Fiona together?
9.Mimi’s story, her being ill on the boat, Nigel and Fiona rescuing her, her dancing to the music of ‘Fever’, talking with Nigel, considering him boring and unfunny? Their meetings, his listening to the story, his encounters with her, the cabins, the kiss, the new year? Fiona? Her death?
10.Mimi in the flashbacks, not having the ticket, working as a waitress, the story of learning to dance, living in New York, her falling in love with Oscar, the meal, going home with him, the sex, the commitment? The collage and range of the sex games, the effect on Oscar, on her? Oscar wanting to be master? The passing of time, Oscar walking out at the dance, Mimi’s desperation, on her knees pleading, Oscar ousting her? Her return, pleading? Her pregnancy, the abortion? On the plane, Oscar abandoning her? Her illness, her later return, confronting Oscar in the hospital, causing his permanent injuries? Her taking care of him, imprisoning him, isolating him, not allowing him to have phone calls? The reverse of roles?
11.Oscar and his narration, the purple prose for a would-be novelist? The US literary type, refuge in Paris, his apartment and the photos of Hemingway etc? His having money, the manuscript of three novels? His meeting with his agent, her urging him to come back to America - and Mimi mocking her? The ticket incident, seeing Mimi, obsessed, the collage, finding her, the dinner, talk, sex, the range of sexual behaviour, dominance, his tiring of it, his hurting Mimi, ousting her, insulting her, power and control, the abortion, abandoning her on the plane? His sexual libertine behaviour? The women? In the car, the accident, in hospital, Mimi and her destroying his mobility, his becoming a victim, controlled? The wheelchair? On the boat? Why choosing Nigel to tell the story? The need to tell? Taunting him, the free American taunting the buttoned-up British? His killing Mimi, killing himself?
12.Fiona and the Latin dancer?
13.Mimi, the dancer in the apartment, sexual encounter, her taunts?
14.Issues of identity, power, violence, sensuality, sexual control? Confrontation?
