Bitter Moon (1992)

While onboard an ocean liner bound for India, a tedious, very English married couple – Nigel (Hugh Grant) and Fiona (Kristin Scott Thomas) Dobson – encounter Mimi (Emmanuelle Seigner, wife of director Roman Polanski), a voluptuous French girl, and her older wheelchair-bound American husband Oscar (Peter Coyote), a failed writer.

Over the course of the voyage, Oscar insists on recounting to Nigel (a well-bred City Eurobond dealer with a public school accent) – in graphic and grotesque detail – the story of his relationship with Mimi – a tale of corrupt passion that threatens to spill over into the life of his listener.

Seen in flashbacks, Oscar lures waitress-dancer Mimi back to his Parisian lair where the two engage in every sexual excess – from casual perversion to downright sadomasochism – until they are washed-out, emotional cripples.

Nigel’s stuffy embarrassment is turned to fierce arousal by Mimi, while Fiona tells him that anything he can do she can do better – and sets out to prove it.

This slickly told psychological drama from Polanski should have been played as a Buñuel-esque comedy, but it’s no laughing matter, and ponderous solemnity finally makes it seem too much like a psychiatric casebook of the kind only Polanski could love.

Oscar
Peter Coyote
Mimi
Emmanuelle Seigner
Nigel Dobson
Hugh Grant
Fiona Dobson
Kristin Scott Thomas
Mr Singh
Victor Banerjee
Amrita
Sophie Patel
Steward
Patrick Albenque
Beverly
Stockard Channing
Dado
Luca Vellani

Director
Roman Polanski

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