Tweet
Released by: Strand Releasing
Released on: 7/26/2011
Director: Roberto Garzelli
Cast: Annabelle Hettmann, Thibault Vincon
Year: 2010
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
The first feature-length film from Roberto Garzelli is an interesting look at modern male-female relationships. In an attempt to grow closer and experience love and life to their fullest the protagonists become even physically invasive of one another. Theirs is a no-holds-barred mutual openness with their bodies that has Cronenberg-ian echoes of bodily obsession as metaphor to move beyond typical mores. And, for the most part, The Sentiment of the Flesh succeeds.
Helena (Annabelle Hettmann) is a young medical illustration student in France whose eye for detail is exceptional and a bit unsettling to her professor. As she's been experiencing some back pain she has some x-rays done by young radiologist and professor Gauvion (Thibault Vincon). He has an eye for intriguing details as well, though, and makes up a story so he can re-scan her to see if some aberration inside of her is what he thinks it is. Helena's soon on to him, though, but appreciates his unbridled spirit of inquisitiveness and the two form a quick, solid, slightly disturbing bond.
Their sexual relationship is very healthy as they attempt to discover every single thing that makes each other's bodies unique. After a negative reaction with a late-night, sensualized MRI session has Helena recovering in the hospital Gauvion soon finds that his desire to go deeper into her body is rising to levels that make him uncomfortable. But Helena persists, sleeping outside his apartment door to plead with him, and even stealing an expensive piece of exploratory surgery equipment to offer Gauvion as the way to reach the ultimate level of their relationship “their way.â€
This becomes too much for him, though, and he rejects her outright. As time goes by, though, he can't stop thinking about Helena or that next level of their relationship. He finally confronts her just as she's preparing to leave France and go back home to Italy. And, as it turns out, a cyst he found long ago in her has apparently grown and needs to be operated on. She won't have anyone do this but him, though. So you get the somewhat inevitable conclusion of her on the operating table, under just a local anesthetic, enjoying him thoroughly...um...enjoying himself in her literal openness. The scene is played tenderly, though, as the characters finally seem to have attained the only path to happiness available to them in an alienating world.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The DVD release from Strand Releasing is very bare bones, offering up just chapter selection, the film's original theatrical trailer, and other Strand releases as extras. The audio is only 2.0 but does give enough good rumble during the MRI scenes to lend itself nicely to the mood on display. The audio is French-only with English-only subtitles as well.
Summary:
A sufficiently creepy examination of modern relationships where people attempt to overcome technological or ideological alienating forces, resorting to the boundaries of the flesh and literally cutting them down in order to bare themselves one to another. It's not too heavy-handed here, either, and the final scene makes this film more than your average relationship film.
Rating: C+
