An adeptly staged, if far from fresh, film about filmmaking, Catherine Breillat's follow-up to "À Ma Soeur!" is a semi-fictionalised exploration of making that mordant adolescent drama.
The earlier picture caused controversy due to the frank nature of its sex scenes, and "Sex is Comedy" shows the creative and carnal tensions which surface when actors and crew capture the beast with two backs.
Roxane Mesquida returns, playing The Actress playing the mid-teen whose virginity is threatened by an Italian tourist. Libero de Rienzo filled that role in "À Ma Soeur!", but is replaced here by Grégoire Colin as The Actor - which is unsurprising if the events the picture portrays reflect anything like the truth.
The two leads, it transpires, detest each other. Barely able to hold a civil conversation, they're hardly convincing lovers. Director Jeanne (Anne Parillaud) despairs at their acting ability, sympathising with the girl even as she encourages her nudity, arguing with the boy, whose fragile self-confidence is further fractured by his attraction to her.
Plot-wise, that's yer lot. The troublesome central sex scene is shot, and characters moon about spouting streams of self-analytical dialogue.
Like the second album of a successful band who drone on about the suffering of success and loneliness of life on the road, so Breillat's script is somewhat self-indulgent and inconsequential.
But she does effectively capture the 'hurry up and wait' atmosphere of a film set, and draws excellent performances from all involved - particularly Parillaud as her on-screen alter ego. Fans of the French director's skewed sensibility will find much to admire. Casual viewers will find "Sex is Comedy" of minor amusement.
In French with English subtitles.
Sex is Comedy (2003)
