The Betty of the title is like a shooting star; she runs hot and bright, but she's burning up. _Betty Blue_ chronicles a torrid affair between a waitress and a handyman, initially in a broken down seaside resort. Betty is both passionate and unstable, almost childlike, and initially it is outsiders who bear the brunt of her anger - the piggish owner of the seaside bungalows, for example, or the playboy publisher who rejects Zorg's novel.

However, as Betty becomes more unstable and begins her descent into insanity, this rage is increasingly turned inward into self-punishing and self-mutilating actions. The same intensity that drives her sexuality and her love for Zorg is, ultimately, her downfall.

Over the course of the movie, which is quite long (I saw the 178 minute director's cut), Zorg goes to increasingly frantic lengths both to please Betty and to protect her from herself. In this regard, certainly, Betty and Zorg are almost identical, both going to extremes, in their own ways, to defend their relationship from outside interference.

As well as providing a narrative that may be read and interpreted on several levels, _Betty Blue_ is an exceptionally beautiful film in terms of cinematography and mise en scene. Colour is used to breathtaking effect - the blue floors of the piano shop, the yellow car, the yellow lighting which makes it seem as though, regardless of time, it's always afternoon twilight. Landscapes, city scenes, interiors are all set up and filmed beautifully.

A tale of love, sex and obsession not to be missed.

This is a heartbreakingly tragic film centred around Betty, (Beatrice Dalle) a beautiful but unstable young woman, whose instability - or madness - becomes progressively worse throughout the film. In the beginning we think she is just an admirably rebellious and fiery person who is over-sensitive to slight and imagined insult. Later she is engulfed by these irrational and self-destructive bouts of hysteria for no perceptible reason. But this happens only occasionally; between times she behaves like a perfectly normal and happy person, as she has every reason to be. It is easy to become impatient with her. She keeps saying she has nothing to live for, that nothing she has ever done has worked out right, but how can this be when she is so much better off than so many millions of others, with beauty, two good friends and a good man who loves her to distraction despite everything? And she loves him in return.

Zorg (Jean-Hughes Anglalde) is an aspiring novelist with a novel in manuscript he has given up all hope of ever seeing published. But she believes in him and, using only two fingers, types out the manuscript with painful slowness, and, with an heroic persistence, continues sending it out to the publishers despite receiving a steady stream of rejection slips. And here-in lies the tragedy ; at the end of the film, when she is dead to the world and past caring, her efforts bear fruit and the manuscript is accepted. How happy knowing this would have made her. But too late.

We leave him alone in his kitchen about to start a new novel, a novel that she will never see, leading to a success and prosperity she will have no share in. My God isn't that sad? "What might have been." the saddest words in the English language.

The pain lies in imagining the long and happy life they might have had together, but for this thing that mad people have, whatever it is, gnawing away inside her mind. No explanation is attempted of why she was the way she was, no revelation of some childhood trauma or of some past bitter experience. We are left to assume that she had some brain or genetic defect. Nor are we given any psychiatric diagnoses. It is mentioned at one point that she is neurotic, but then aren't we all? She mentions hearing voices in her head which is the classic symptom of Schizophrenia, but her other behaviour doesn't fit the pattern. Nor does her behaviour fit the pattern of the Manic- depressive. who, surely, is subject only to mood-swings not to sudden and violently wild outburst of behaviour. So we are left to ponder the nature of madness. It makes you think and it's all interesting stuff.

This is a long film, but with a wealth of interest and by no means depressing; there are many happy sequences and funny moments, and the acting is uniformly excellent.

A happy-go-lucky odd job man (Jean-Hugues Anglade as Zorg) falls in to a relationship with a slightly unhinged -- but very sexy/sexual -- French teenager named Betty (Béatrice Dalle in her debut role.)

There are very few films that are totally different from anything you have seen before. While sexually explicit -- it is far from objectionable because the two parties are in love and passionate about one another.

Betty Blue/37°2 le matin doesn't really fall in to any one category -- going from farce to tragedy, stopping off at oddball. The two leads are amazing in their chemistry -- they really do look and act like they are in love. Also what an amazing debut by the Dalle, although her later life has shown that she has plenty of the Betty Blue in her for real.

(Was this script written with her in mind? -- my search for the truth goes on.)

Starting the film with a sex scene sets the film off on the totally the wrong foot. While the film is about sex -- and at times sexual repression -- there are times when it looks like it was set in a nudist camp. Even Jean-Hugues Anglade strolls around with it all on show -- thankfully he looks like he has kept up his gym membership.

The scene in which Betty throws the whole of the fixtures and fittings of the beach apartment out of the window was stolen by a famous car advert (in the UK) and it really is a stretch of the imagination in that Zorg doesn't respond to it. He just paints on and lets her get on with it -- like he doesn't care.

(I think we all know how we would react in a similar situation and it wouldn't be like Zorg!)

This has great cinematography with every scene framed to perfection. The dour insides of the French household and the generally dirty oven and sink (usually with two weeks worth of dishes in them.) Very true if you know that part of the world!

The repeating, irregular, piano theme tune is what cinema is about -- when in the hands of people that know how to marry both mediums. Images and music fitting together to form a perfect marriage. Fantastic and moving.

The famous Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gives this low marks -- citing too much flesh being on display (among other faults) -- and this is sad given that he gave Kill Bill Part One top marks. A woman making love to a man she is in passionately in love with is tasteless -- a homicidal woman slicing the arms of a whole room of gangsters is OK?

Roger -- I respect you a great deal, but you are as wrong as Leslie Halliwell (author of the world's most famous film guide book) when he gave Close Encounters no stars at all.

You should come over here (Europe) a bit more. Walk about the beaches of France and Spain and look at the amount of flesh on display and the way people show affection for one another without glancing 'round to see who is looking. True it has one or two sex scenes too many -- as I hinted before -- but it is sex that means something and is about something.

Betty Blue is one of my top 200 films of all time and while it has its limits and its faults (it does sag a little in middle) it remains a powerful piece of work about living with crazy people and how easily good times can slip in to bad. I think if the sex was toned down and there was a bit more of the comedy/romance in the centre than this could easily be part of the IMDb top 200. Not that this really matters all that much.

A product that only the French could make and one gets under your skin and stays there.

This review is a reference to the original cinema cut.

In my personal list of the best films i have seen in my life so far, "37°2 le matin" is sometimes placed in the top 10, sometimes below, but until now there are not enough films to replace it, even if it is now 15 years old.

A wonderful book by one of France's best authors was turned in into a beautiful film, one of the best, European cinema has created so far. Not even a bit old-fashioned, full of life, passion, tragedy, madness and love. A real classic. And i am not sure, it will be replaced in my top-list by another movie in the next years.

Its a great movie that shown the tragic life of a female that suffer from a borderline disorder. The sensitivity, she suffering and the way to love are the mean key for the tragedy in the life of the borderline. The movie focus into the life of a couple giving a huge brand of sense to the special way to love and to feel life trough Betty, a young borderline. The borderline disorder provide to the movies the best female personalities, but in real life, this rebel, intelligent, unpredictable people finish on a tragic end. Enjoy this amazing movie.

It was ten years ago when I saw the two hour version. Watching the director's cut was like seeing it for the first time. This version concentrated more on Jean-Hugues' character Zorg and his love and devotion to the mentally disintegrating Betty. The story takes its time, allowing us to understand Betty's illness and appreciate Zorg's erratic behaviour. The English title can be off putting because the expectations focus on the character Betty, played brilliantly by Dalle.

A stunning film which cuts across the entire narrative range from absolute farce to ultimate tragedy. This movie sums up, for me, France; the geography (from the beaches of the Riviera to the streets of Paris)and the people (between Betty's neurotic femininity and Zorg's sullen ennui). Cannot recommend it enough. Unbelievable and shameful that "37°2 le matin" is not available on DVD........

I came to the IMDb message board for Betty Blue because I wanted to see if anyone else thought the movie was in Zorg's mind.

At the very end of the movie, Zorg hears while he is writing alone in his kitchen "are you writing?" and he says "no, I am thinking". Zorg also looks very relaxed and fulfilled as though he had just finished his novel.

My friend says he thinks the whole movie is in Zorg's mind, and the boiling pot at the beginning and the end brings the story together for this point. Betty may just be a character he was working on in his book, and he was thinking out his novel, that is why he says he is thinking at the very end. Plus the characters and situations seem like a writer coming up with situations and characters for a novel.

Give me your two cents...I would appreciate it. Great movie!

As well as being one of the all-time erotic classics (and I mean "erotic" rather than "pornographic") this is simply a fantastic drama, poignant and harrowing, funny and sad. Beautifully shot with amazing colours, quirky characterization, excellent acting and imaginative direction this movie is a delight for all of its 185 minutes (the director's cut is the one to go for). But when is this coming out on DVD? Will the US film company's have enough imagination to bring it out? We can, like Zorg at the end of this movie, only live in hope.

37.2 Le Matin(Betty Blue) is a brilliant piece of work. Jean-Huhues Anglades' natural performance as Zorg in this easy going - take life as it comes story line makes you want to see more of him. To see someone you love violently erode away is painful and Robins' beautiful camera work with the slow tracking makes the visual experience stimulating. The slow pace of this tale of love and friendship is no cause of concern. Very french, the nudity is handled beautifully. The subtle use of the color yellow is interesting. The film makes you want to be free to live a life of impulse and simplicity. A must watch for the film aficionado.

Is there one movie you've watched every night for a week? This was mine and I remember that strange feeling you get that every movie to follow will be disappointing in comparison. This movie was extraordinary in sight, sound, emotion, character. In overview it becomes a bit disjointed at a point, and the ending while powerful may not score high in originality. The rest is a masterpiece. This impact remains high because of some of the parallels to relationships I've had... I recall going to the company store on a business trip to Korea. One movie poster hung in the window, Beatrice Dalle in blue...

Another film favorite that was programmed on the Los Angeles Based Z Channel, this was one that I kinda remembered, but had forgotten - basically because of its sadness, and because it was shown in its original language with subtitles. At that time, original foreign films shown in subtitles aren't usually tops on the list of young movie watchers at the time. So I had the opportunity to watch the 3 hour movie recently again, older, wiser and much more interested, and I'm glad I did. I remembered it. This is...a good film. Better impacted in the 80's before we all knew what we know now, but it still does holds up.

This is a film of a man who fell in love with the most unpredictable woman he'd ever met. Her unpredictability attracted him, made him fall in love her, and that unpredictability was daring and unique. Going back to that time in the 80's who knew that she was more than just an unpredictable free spirit, she was on the brink of insanity and was losing her grip on what she thought she could control. He did too. And what you have here is a stunning film of love and acceptance of a strong life force entering a dull life and making that life realize that there WAS more to life than what he was living.

There is no doubting how the palate of the colors of this film is also central in telling the story, so as you watch, do pay attention for I think its deliberate. And I did love watching Betty as she was not "flawless" but as natural and beautiful as one could be with the nudity involved in the film. (That's why in my reviews I keep using the word "real"). There's some nudity but due to the pacing of the film, it just didn't bother me as nudity for nudity's sake, but just a part of the life these two lovers led.

Some will feel that 3 hours is a long time to look at a film, and it can be. But I've sat through 3 hour plus films such as Fanny & Alexander, Heaven's Gate and Das Boot back in the hey-day of the "Z" Channel - and because I found interest in them, the time flew by. Same with this one. It will grab your attention until the end.

I don't know how often I have seen Betty Blue/37°2 le matin. But every time I still see things anew. The complexity of Betty, he passionate devotion to Zorg. The care Zorg gives her, it is how relations are or should be. Including all the quarrels and arguments.

I have no idea where this film works on my emotional state of being. But the first half I always laugh my head off and the second part always ends with me crying uncontrollable. This is sometimes my reason for watching: this film clears my emotional systems.

I have worked and spent many a holiday in France. This film, to me, shows the intensity of French people with life and relations. If you want to learn about the French and their ways, watching this film is a very intense start.

... films (not just "foreign films" ) out there. I think the word "haunting" was invented just to describe it. It is poignant, moving, deep and more without being overly heavy. Betty Blue/37.2 is a very good example of directing mood without being stupid -- scenes do make sense, characters do get revealed. So it's not like one of those arty "ambience" films your friends drag you off to every so often.

First time viewers, don't be put off by the first scene -- I think they just did it to prove they could.

To explain how powerful it is, even now if I hear the stupid song Zorg plays on piano, I still feel the film. The book is great as well.

There are two versions of this movie. One is short version and the other is lengthy uncut version. Short version is just another romantic drama movie. Nothing special. But the uncut version is a real masterpiece. The experience of watching this movie is not like watching it as a spectator; but as a participant. If the actors felt happy, we feel it. If they are crying, we too are crying. If they made love, we feel the pleasure of it. Such strong acting. It is the experience of watching the actual lives of two people through a secret window.

Writer-director Jean-Jacques Beineix's film follows the sad life of Betty and her lover Zorg. From the steamy beginning of their relationship to the bitter end, we share in their heartache. This story has tragedy written all over it.

"Betty Blue" fails to captivate though. In fact it only succeeds in repulsing due to the ugliness of the central character. Betty is such a crazy wench that you never know whom she might attack next. It is thus very hard to sympathise with her, or any other of the rather uninspiring characters.

Having said this, Beatrice Dalle is superb as the severely disturbed Betty, and Jean Hughes-Anglade lends strong support as "writer" boyfriend Zorg. Additional cast add extra weight to the acting credentials. Cinematography from Jean-Francois Robin is top notch, as is the original music from Gabriel Yared which is just that, fresh and different. Beineix presents the production well, but is unable to win us over. Phillippe Djian's novel could be intriguing.

Sunday, February 22, 1998 - Video

If you've ever owned a cat, you'll know that they like to sleep a lot, eat a lot, and brush up against your ankles when they're hungry. They're never in a hurry to please you, they're vain, and they want you dead once they've licked their bowl clean. It's all predictable behavior. You know what to expect. 99% of the time. But, the unpredictable 1% will come as no shock to a cat person. For some crazy reason, usually at night, cats suddenly go nuts and dash around the house like they're chasing invisible, flying rodents. They're totally out of control. They'll scratch you if you get in their way and they'll snarl at you like they're ready to rip your throat out. Then, just as suddenly, they'll regress to their former personalities and settle by the fire. Why they go nuts, why that crazy cat gene suddenly flares up, is unknown. Even they don't know, one suspects. They don't even remember going nuts once it's over. They behave like nothing ever happened as they slink sheepishly back into the dining room and return to to their former mild-mannered selves.

Women have the crazy cat gene, too, and only a fella who's never lived with one would wonder what the hell I'm talking about. Women might deny it, too, but that's expected. Jean-Jacques Beineix's "Betty Blue" is about such a woman, only her cat gene is starting to ruin her life and the lives of those around her. It''s horrible to watch the gorgeous, luscious-lipped Beatrice Dalle come apart at the seams and plunge into madness, but it's the stuff of a great movie, and it's why the film is so engaging.

As with all gorgeous women, there's a guy out there who's sick and tired of her sh*t. That guy in "Betty Blue" is Zorg (Jean-Hugues Anglade), a magnificent actor who also had a pivotal role in Roger Avery's puerile "Killing Zoe". Anglade loves Betty so much that he's willing to put up with her mood swings, but, ultimately, he loses her just before she totally loses her own mind.

The film is beautiful. The first forty-five minutes, where Zorg and Betty hook up and paint beach houses, is very French, very cinematic, and very erotic. The photography is stunning and the emotions are real. Once Betty's madness begins to impact on the relationship, we experience every tragic step in her decline.

Director Beineix never made a better film than "Betty Blue". "Rosaline and the Lions" had an energy to it, but "Moon in the Gutter" caved in under the weight of its own melancholy and hyper-stylization. The reason "Betty Blue" works is because it is about a fascinating character we care about. It doesn't help us to understand women any better, but it reminds every guy who's confronted the cat that he is not alone.

I mean that in at least two senses: that it is very good and that it depicts realistic fantasy (or fantasy realistically). In some of the other reviews there are objections to the unreality of this movie and many other movies are also knocked for lack of reality. This is NOT a documentary! Long ago I heard the phrase, "the willing suspension of disbelief" in the context of viewing theatre. This movie is ART, not a news reel. I loved the craziness of the characters and empathized with their struggles. They are extremes to illustrate thoughts and emotions, not "real people". Take them metaphorically as struggles we go through in lesser degree and appreciate the movie as such.

I liked what one reviewer suggested, that the movie was really just the second book that Zorg was writing, "a play within a play". Maybe? In any event I found it very powerful and enjoyable, even if "unbelievable".

I saw this movie when I was a dorky NJ girl who just so happened to walk into a theater in NYC and caught Betty Blue. I remember being shocked and a little annoyed that I had to read the whole movie, I almost walked out (typical idiot!).. When it was over, I could barely get up and leave. When I did, I saw that it was going to play again in another 20 minutes so I went back and saw it again. I didn't want to read it that time, I just wanted to soak up the colors and the music.

I had ever seen anything like it before.

I saw Betty Blue many years and many European movies later and thought it was disjointed, seemingly jumping around; I never got really got their 'love' - his love especially. You sort of wondered why he was so nuts for her. The ending didn't really make sense to me either.

I just rented it from Netflix and didn't know it was the director's cut. 3 hours 5 minutes later I was sitting in a puddle of tears (& I'm no pus$y) so incredibly fulfilled and satisfied was I. Yes it's a bit long and it could use a couple of little cuts here and there.. but it's something to savor. Like a novel - which is perfect of course as Zorg is a writer and you imagine that he could have easily written it - no doubt the whole point.

This movie is spectacular and I can't think of a movie that moves likes this. The nudity is delicious and natural, the lovemaking is breathless and makes you squirm a little from the intimacy of it. The photography is straightforward, the sets and settings are very unforced parisian. The car is a bit precious perhaps.. scene with Bob and the liquid coming out of the truck is forced comedy.. but the rest is natural.

There's a reason there is so much chemistry between these two.. they made a massive film together full of a complex love and it's wonderful to watch the way the director intended.. It would be better if they offered both versions for discussion. I would love to see a very talented editor get his hands on this film, just for fun.

It's a complete love story. It fills you up. Worth every minute.

Betty Blue / 37°2 le matin French. OK. Language isn't everything. This film is a classic though, in no other production will you see anything like the passion and violence of the mind. Well worth the language barrier.

I remember this film from my early teens, it struck a chord then, as it does now. Nothing like it has been made since, and I doubt any film trying to take away the light from this masterpiece could do so...

Psychotic / Angry / Loving All wrapped up very well...

As the subject says - this title is now available on DVD!

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It's a strange movie. For sure the best acting ever by Béatrice Dalle, she's the engine of the story, and she's very convincing. It strikes you with impressive force, helped also by an awesome soundtrack and a photography that takes your breath away. I've never forgotten this movie, perhaps the best french film I've ever seen. A cult-movie !

There are many very good reviews here, but I just wanted to say that if you watch this excellent film, please make sure you watch the director's cut. I have watched both versions and the clumsily edited 120min version is very poor by comparison with the full length cut. It also leaves some central elements of the film completely and frustratingly unexplained. By contrast, the full version is a compelling story of a particular and intense relationship and it succeeds in raising a number of broad questions about love, passion, loyalty and commitment. I think everyone should watch this film but no one should watch the shorter edit.

First things first. This is one of the most beautiful pictures I have ever seen. I saw the directors cut last night (having never seen the original, mind you) and i was blown away by the emotions this thing was throwing in my direction. The two leads had the greatest natural chemistry I've ever seen on film.

If you made the same mistake I did and put off viewing this film then you are a bigger fool than I. I thought this would be an artsy fartsy affair but was thankfully proven wrong.

I knew nothing ( and still know very little) about the director and actors but I would love to know more about the actress who played Betty. Awesome. She was beautiful and so believable. I sat there for 3 hours entranced by her. I can't believe this was her acting debut. I can't believe this film was made in 1986. I only learnt this when i got on imdb today. This looks like it was made 2 years ago.

I don't have one bad thing to say (except maybe the opening sex scene). Other than that, how can anyone fault this film. A beautiful character study, romance, and just a great dam film.

Is "Betty Blue" as great a movie as most people seem to believe? Well...it's amusing at times, erotic at others, but overall the story it tells is so insubstantial that you wonder what exactly compelled Beineix to tell it. The shorter (120 minutes) version also has some huge narrative gaps - but I won't be searching for the three-hour version anytime soon, the movie is already too long as it is. The actors, however, are perfectly cast: Anglade is engaging as the constantly befuddled by Betty's personality hero, and Dalle, while not beautiful in a conventional sense, has a luscious body and sure isn't timid about showing it off (neither is Anglade, for that matter). (**)

These comments contain a public health warning. I strongly urge all decent citizens to NEVER see this film unless it is for free and you have done all you want to do in life at least twice. Maybe not even then.

A few words to explain this courtesy to fellow sentients. I won't waste 178 Director's Un-cut minutes of your valuable time.

Pretentious. That's a good word to describe my opinion on this overblown melodrama, this shallow, hideously glossy examination of two worthless souls.

Irritated. Another excellent word which encapsulates my feelings as the tedious protagonists exposed their unconscionably dull lives to me. I felt as though I was the single guest at a dinner party of tepid acquaintances who drone on about their bathroom grouting for three hours and then have a fight about it whilst you're downing the last of the lambrusco.

Murderous. A very pleasurable state of mind. All those involved should have been smothered with a pillow; Betty Blue herself for her puerile psychotic petulance; Zorg for his definitive depiction of a vapid loser and of course the director who should also have been riddled with a full-clip for having the audacity to perpetuate this gallic monstrosity without a trace of irony.

For those of a carnal disposition, there are a couple of decent sex scenes but you can see those anywhere you sad person.

It is incumbent on a film-maker to make his characters and the story interesting for the poor viewer. Betty reminds me of an intense bratty child though with pneumatic lips, forever slitting her wrists and screeching to gain attention. Not interesting after three minutes Monsieur Beineix. Here's the last word.

Painful.