| Anatomy of Hell | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| French | Anatomie de l'enfer |
| Directed by | Catherine Breillat |
| Screenplay by | Catherine Breillat |
| Based on | Pornocratie by Catherine Breillat |
| Produced by | Jean-François Lepetit |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | |
| Edited by | Pascale Chavance |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Rézo Films |
Release dates |
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Running time | 77 minutes[1] |
| Countries |
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| Language | French |
| Box office | $345,365[3] |
Anatomy of Hell (French:Anatomie de l'enfer) is a 2004eroticdrama film written and directed byCatherine Breillat, based on her 2001 novelPornocratie. According to Breillat,Anatomy of Hell is a "sequel" toRomance.[4]
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 of them 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.
The film was adapted by writer/director Breillat from her novelPornocracy. The sexually explicit film stars Amira Casar as "the woman" andporn 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'."[5]
Breillat allowed Casar to use a body double in the explicit sex scenes. Siffredi's performance, however, is all his own work.[6]
Siffredi recalled that when Breillat described one scene to him, she took his penis in her hand and explained to Casar how she should play the scene.[6]
The film polarized critics.Leonard Maltin gave the film zero stars and said the film was "homophobic" and "unintentionally funny".[5]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 byAnatomy of Hell, is that the audience would decide they did not require such a serious director after all."[7]
BBC film critic Jamie Russell gave the film four stars out of five:
The film went on to win Best Feature Film at thePhiladelphia Film Festival.[9]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 26% of 35 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "Ponderous, pretentious, and—considering the subject matter—dull."[10]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 29 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[11]
