37°2 le matin 1986

Janet Maslin, New York Times: If Betty Blue teaches us anything -- and there's a good chance it doesn't -- it's that life is full of little mysteries. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The movie was colorful and swirling and oppressive all at once, and in 1991, Beineix recut it not to slim it down but to add a florid third hour. Read more

Peter Keough, Chicago Reader: Perhaps what is least satisfying about Beineix' effort is its implied theme -- that women are mere muses to be addled, suffocated, and sacrificed to revitalize the imaginations of men. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Love is not the same thing as nudity. This may seem obvious, but I feel it ought to be explained to director Jean-Jacques Beineix. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: A playful, meandering, somewhat confusing tale that hangs together as a portrait of demented love. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: If Betty Blue feasts on the bodies of its leads, it's this director's cut that fully establishes the movie's artistic bona fides. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: Dalle, a model, makes a moving debut as the desperate baby-doll who fails to mold reality to her own conceptions of happiness. Anglade is more introvertedly affecting as the lucidly casual, but devoted Zorg. Read more

Melissa Anderson, Village Voice: Curvy, ripe Dalle, only 21 at the time and in her first screen role, completely commits to the part. Read more

Paul Attanasio, Washington Post: If Dalle finds with remarkable clarity the one note that her role calls for -- the petulant volcano -- she can't support the existential weight Beineix wants to drop on her. Read more

Rita Kempley, Washington Post: Like Zorg, we are bedazzled by Betty's bright eyes, big moue and wild child's ways. Read more