Betty Blue - A.K.A.: 37°2 Degrees in the Morning, 37°2 Le Matin

Jean-Jacques Beineix’s epic romantic tragedy was the first foreign film this small town Northern Michigan kid ever saw, and it was the film that would make me break away from my small town world to travel the country, (and it was the first film to shatter my notions of love, intimacy and the idea of finding and holding true love.)

What an introduction to the outside world this film was to me. I had to ride my bike fifteen miles to a video store to find it back in 1987, a year after I had heard about it from Siskel and Ebert, but it was worth the wait and the travel.

From the raw and animalistic sex scene in the opening scene, to the beautiful locations and openness of the characters, I was sucked into this passionate love story (and exploration of madness) and instantly fell in love with Beatrice Dalle and wanted to be Jean Hughes Anglade.

The story starts simple enough; handyman Zorg meets Betty and takes her in for a simple life of passionate love making and drinking the nights away until Betty discovers Zorg’s novel and insists that Zorg has been wasting his life working for a crude and nasty boss in the middle of nowhere and that he should get his novel published. Zorg doesn’t have much time to think about his options as Betty makes the decision for him.

What follows is beautiful, tragic, sexy, and eye-opening and what this reviewer considers to be the greatest romance movie ever made (though a very dark one) but what is more important is the theme of not living a life of complacency and apathy. This movie is about dreams and living life to its fullest and it tells the story with honest even when the truth isn’t nice or ideal.

Jean-Jacques Beineix has made many great films but his work is largely underappreciated (especially in America) and it has been a number of years since he has made a film. Mortel Transfert has never been released here and it makes me a little angry.

Betty Blue is beautifully filmed and carries a score that we own on CD and have worn out over the years.

Beatrice Dalle’s Betty is every bit the ideal woman and her character represents freedom and the costs of being truly free. Jean Hughes Anglade (our favorite male French actor) is so loveable, human and representative as the “every man” in Betty Blue that it is hard not to relate to him.

Betty Blue is a film that depicts how true love is forever, (even if you can not hold onto it) and that a rich, full life does not come by sitting idle.

This DVD is much longer than the version I saw as a younger man and adds an unseen element to the story that is additionally harrowing and is a further exploration of Betty’s struggle.

This film and Agnes Varda’s Vagabond were the two films that made me want to see every film from every country in the world and made me leave my small town in pursuit of a life of exploration and discovery and I am indebted to both directors for such beautiful awakenings.

People often ask me what my favorite film is and though I am not always forthcoming with the specific film, it is unquestionably Betty Blue. If it were not for this heart-breaking masterpiece, I never would have developed a taste for films outside of the 80’s Reagan-era vigilante and mindless fascist crap Hollywood was regurgitating (Clint Eastwood, Schwarznegger, and Stallone were all pushing right-wing themed agendas.)

Betty Blue has often been focused on negatively or critically dismissed because of its sexually graphic content and liberal nudity, but there are deeper issues and examinations explored here that critics ignored or missed. Betty Blue is a film about real life and about how wonderful and painful love can be, and how another person can inspire us to be better people. It is about growing and evolving, and exploring the world we are a part of before we expire.

Betty Blue is a dark and existential love story that is more bold and powerful than any film we are ever likely to see again. It stole my innocence and I am forever grateful.

Terry Osterhout
September 2006