After Sex

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Film: B-

 

 

Actress-turned-occasional-director Brigitte Rouan has not abandoned acting, but is making some interesting films when she gets the chance to.  After Sex (1997, aka Post coitum animal triste) opens with a cat in heat, followed by Rouan as Diane in a similar state.  Horror fans might expect the original Leatherface to show up, but we instead get an intelligent film about an older woman’s loneliness and private pain in her marriage and life.  Just when all seemed hopeless, she becomes involved with the much younger Emilio (Boris Terral).

 

They bonds instantly and begin a serious sexual relationship.  The actor is not so overly beautified as to be unbelievable, her back stories make total sense as to why she is in the personal crisis she falls into, the sex is not graphic and handled with an amazing sense of class and sensuality like we too rarely see, and the cast is also solid.  The script takes some unusual twists and turns that bring out the supporting characters, so they are not just there so this film has an excuse to be about the sex and not story.  Though it misses some opportunities to go further on a psychological level and could explore sexuality even more with its refreshing approach, it is a still too rare film about sex from an authentic female viewpoint, which is why After Sex is so worth your time.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image was shot on Fuji film and this is a PAL transfer, though the DVD is NTSC and conversion does not seem to have been done with the master material.  That hurts the video black and makes some shots look like HD video.  Three cinematographers (Pierre Dupouey, Arnaud Leguy and Bruno Mistretta) manage to meld their styles well enough and the source print is clean otherwise.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo was an analog Dolby SR (Spectral Recording) in theaters, but this version has no palpable surround information.  The music score is by Michel Musseau and not bad, but there is also music by Umberto Tozzi, who is behind the late Laura Brainpan’s megahit Gloria form 1982, which he himself made into an even crazier-sized megahit back in Italy.   Though a different song is featured here, the juxtaposition of that Pop classic and Diane’s situation here is ironic indeed.  The only extra here is five trailers: one for this film from overseas and four more for other New Yorker DVD titles.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo