The New York Times by Dana Stevens
Brain-dead.
France · 1998
1h 30m
Director Didier Le Pêcheur
Starring Élodie Bouchez, Jean-Marc Barr, Patrick Catalifo, Gérard Loussine
Genre Drama
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Ben works in a morgue. Ben's wife left him and he is into various kinds of alternative sexuality. Teresa dies of an ecstasy overdose on the dance floor. When she is brought to the morgue, she is resurrected -how shall I say?- in Ben's arms (that part based on a true story). From this starting point, the film revolves around the interactions between them and Boris (orgy fan), Abdel (no sentimental life), Ducon (wants to kill himself), Nico (dying of AIDS), etc... A social study of the 90s with heavy references to sex and deat
The New York Times by Dana Stevens
Brain-dead.
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
Wants to appear bold and liberated, but it seems awfully solemn about the subculture it explores.
In trying to avoid moralizing or cheap sensationalizing, Didier sidestepped any energy force altogether and his film snoozes because of it.
New York Daily News by Jack Mathews
Underdeveloped and badly diluted by overlong -- and overly stylized -- forays into the drug use, street hustling and cultural alienation that mostly affects the boys' friends.
It manages to be both ponderous and silly.
Chicago Reader by Lisa Alspector
Nearly toothless 1998 existential drama.
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
If not an entirely successful film, it's a bold and haunting one.
Seems stuck in reverse.
Despite its bizarre intellectual project, Le Pecheur's film is seductive and shockingly sexy.
Is it better to speak or die?
A faded television actor and his stunt double strive to achieve fame in the final years of Hollywood's Golden Age.