RetroCinema: ‘Betty Blue’ Hitting Repertory Theaters Soon

We made a little faux-pas last weekend when we said there wasn’t a whole hell of a lot interesting retro-cinema playing in New York outside, Alain Cavalier’s debut feature, the political action/spy drama, “Le Combat Dans L’île” at Film Forum starring the great Jean-Louis Trintignant and belle German actress Romy Schneider (which is now over, hope you caught it).

Actually, there’s something else rather intriguing that opened last weekend which we completely missed. Jean-Jacques Beineix is a slightly lesser known French filmmaker from the ’80s who got some retroactive recognition last year when his colorfully stylish and dazzling 1981 thriller, “Diva” finally scored itself a proper pimped-out DVD release (highly recommended) via the Meridian Collection (it received four César Awards in 1982). One of his key works, 1986’s French cult classic, “Betty Blue” (or its French title, “37°2 le matin”) never properly screened in the U.S., and now for the first time ever, it’s playing here in New York. Essentially a intimate portrayal of obsessive love, the picture stars Béatrice Dalle (many will remember her as the blind and perturbed woman who takes a cab ride from Isaach De Bankolé , in Jim Jarmusch’s cabbies vignettes film, “A Night On Earth”) and Jean-Hugues Anglade (the empathetic and understanding boyfriend of Nikita in the French spy classic, “La Femme Nikita”). The version that’s screening here is the director’s cut that adds an hour of extra footage (it’s a whopping 185 min cut, this hour has never been seen by American audiences in theaters). It’s not entirely unknown, it did score an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1986, but you obviously don’t hear it discussed in many places. TimeOutNewYork has a good review of it from last week.

But you know what? FUCK us. We missed it, Christ. It only had a one week run in New York. Well, let’s hope this means a DVD release is on the way and either way it’s a film to look out for if/when it hits your city at a repertory theater (there is a “director’s cut” DVD out there, but it’s only 120 minutes). Cinematical notes that it’s at the the Nuart in LA on July 3, the Landmark in Minneapolis on July 24, Landmark’s Varsity in Seattle on August 7, the Starz FilmCenter in Denver on August 21, and then back to the East Coast at Landmark’s Kendall Square in Boston on September 11.

Here’s the director’s cut trailer:

Here’s the trailer for “Diva” if you’ve never seen it. Go out of your way to catch both of these if you can (“Diva” is on DVD so you really have no excuse).