Director Jean-Jacques Beineix had an international smash with his first feature film, the stylish thriller Diva (1981). His big budget sophomore effort, The Moon in the Gutter (1983), got him booed at all the major film festivals. It flopped in the US, and has been unavailable for years. Cinema Libre has finally given this cinematic folly the DVD treatment as part of the Jean-Jacques Beineix Collection. Is it as bad as its reputation?
Alas, the film is overblown, its saturated colors and over-the-top performances contributing to an atmosphere more kitsch than noir. It's surreal and too literal at the same time: the titular moon is of course reflected in the titular gutter ... in BLOOD! Character and motivation is over-telegraphed by orchestral fanfare and stylish lighting - Kinski's entrance plays like a parody of the film noir dame, the soundtrack welling as she moves in slow motion. The script is more or less true to the letter of the book (not one of Goodis's best), but for all the money and effort put into the mise-en-scene, Beineix fails to make a compelling fantasy world — and fails even worse at realism, as scenes of dockworkers on the job are particularly unconvincing.
Admirers of the actors, the director, the author may well be curious about The Moon in the Gutter,but the cat will not be rewarded with cream.
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