Betty Blue (37°2 le matin). França. 1986. Direção e Roteiro: Jean-Jacques Beineix. Com: Jean-Hugues Anglade (Zorg), Béatrice Dalle (Betty), Gérard Darmon (Eddy), Consuelo De Havilland (Lisa), Jacques Mattou (Bob). Gênero: Drama. Duração: 185 minutos. Classificação: 18 anos.

Começo pela duração do filme, que nessa versão em Dvd foi ampliada; sem os cortes do que foi à época para o cinema. E o por que? Porque não irão ver o tempo passar. Nele encontrarão um pouco de: drama, romance, comédia, suspense... pontuando um tórrido e explosivo romance. Entre Betty e Zorg. Que também subverte a vida dos que estão próximo.

Betty, dos encontros noturnos... numa certa manhã, meio que invade a vida, a casa desse... diria, desse pacato cidadão que é o Zorg. De malas, ela praticamente o escolheu para ser o seu eterno amor. Por vezes uma doce menina, noutras uma mulher pronta a viver seu desejo, aos poucos nos dá a certeza de que não será um romance banal. E num de seus acessos de... descontrole... ela descobre algo que Zorg ocultara, até então. Que a faz ficar... fascinada... Pondo mais fogo nessa paixão.

Zorg, é um doce de pessoa! Eu me apaixonei por esse personagem. Ele a deixa entrar em seu coração, em sua vida... A princípio, como uma novidade. Como quando a recebeu, ainda tímida, meio que pedindo permissão para nela, dela fazer parte... Depois, numa entrega de corpo e alma... E faz loucuras por esse amor... acalorado... louco... bandido... por esse amor transgressor, mas que veio para ficar.

Entre cenas longas e curtas de sexo explícito (A que inicia o filme... longa, talvez sim para uns... A mim... Fiquei numa de: "Espere por ela...". Outra, perto de uma lareira... Uau!!), em vê-los desnudos até em viver essa paixão louca... Entre cenários simples onde a natureza dá o tom... Com uma trilha sonora belíssima... Betty e Zorg nos deixa um convite para revê-los outras vezes mais.

Ah! o final... O final nos leva a pensar. Assistam! Nota: 10.

By: Valéria Miguez.

Curiosidade: O título original do filme, traduzido ao pé da letra, significa 37,2 graus (centígrados) pela manhã, uma referência à temperatura do corpo e à hora do dia mais propícia para uma mulher engravidar. Betty é uma mulher cujo espírito vive nesse estado febril, nesse período fértil 24 horas por dia.

A lot changes in 20 plus years. My memory of BETTY BLUE did not all together match up with reality. Part of the problem is that I was 19 when I last saw it. I had such little healthy experience when it came to sexuality and none when it came to relationships and the world. Of course, I also found that I wasn't sure what was new to the film and was originally in it.I had even forgotten that the man of Betty's dreams was a closet writer. A writer who is more than a little blocked.

One concept that jumped out at me was illustrated in a scene involving Betty and Zorg tearing down a wall to open up the space in a room. As Zorg beats the wall to submission in his sexy shirt he poses seductively with the sledge hammer and asks Betty if he looks like a demolition man. She tells him that he simply looks like a writer working on a new novel:

Zorg: "I don't see what writing has to do with demolition."

Betty: "I'm not surprised." First, I must comment on the two lead actors. Jean-Huges remains as hot on that screen as he did in 1986! And, the same goes for Beatrice Dalle. ...almost. B made an interesting comment on Beatrice Dalle as Betty:

"Man, that woman has some crazy-ass teeth!"

...In deed, she did and still has them. ...Only more so. Beatrice Dalle still has a kick ass body. And upon doing a google and an imdb.com search I discovered that she and I are the same age. And, that poor Beatrice seems to have turned out to be as disturbed as her most famous character, Betty. Actually, Beatrice seems rather scary, dangerous and bad to know. Apparently, she fought thru a number of drug addictions and just recently married an inmate here in California. ? She still shows up in strange art house movies. Now, Jean-Hugues remains hot. How, at 52, does he still look so good?!?!? It isn't fair, really. Unlike Beatrice, Jean-Hugues has had a fairly stable working/life going down for the last 20 years. He even works in the bad Hollywood film now and then. However, he never lived up to the glory that was expected after his turn in BETTY BLUE.

Actually, the film is quite good. Tho, far too long in the director's version. And, it remains an incredibly erotic film which is fairly equal in opportunity for both male and female viewers. Well, as equal as non-porn ever gets. And, there is a tenderness to the graphic sex that one seldom sees in movies. The two have real chemistry and their obsessive love is somehow believable.

What struck me was how very much I simply missed as a 19 year old Texas boy watching this movie in Houston. From a scene early in the film it is clear that Betty has some serious mental issues -- as does Zorg's love for Betty and his odd admiration for her "spirit" ---- Instead of actually helping Betty, Zorg almost enables her to fall deeper into the sort of madness from which a person is usually unable to return. You see it as you watch. I missed that.

And, there is this odd side plot -- which I do remember -- of Zorg cross-dressing to aide Betty and ultimately "save" her. We're talking about the robbing of banks with homo-erotic undertones and murder. None of that really struck me as odd.

In 1986 I found BETTY BLUE to be deliciously lush, erotic, romantic and beautifully tragic. Now, in 2008, I find BETTY BLUE to be erotic, obsessively/neurotically romantic, silly and disturbing. It is an effective movie that currently runs about 40 minutes too long. There is an obnoxious subplot involving a grocer's under-sex'd wife. Tho, under the current and past her huge boobs, one can see a sort of theme of sad desperation.

One thing is sure --- the film captures that heady, erotic and scary desire that love and passion tends to ignite when love first starts to flower. Like Zorg, I love Betty --- but his resolve is more than I can fathom. ...Which probably means that there is more going on there than I can fully understand. The main problem or issue I have with this film is the twisted eroticism of insanity. There is nothing romantic about it. H

...But, as the credits rolled I got the feeling that much of my issue is more about my own projection. BETTY BLUE is not romantic.

It is tragic.

And, I was listening to my vinyl soundtrack to MARY POPPINS.
This is not the cover of that LP, but I really like this picture and wanted to use it!

Betty is blue ...with crazy-ass teeth.