User reviews

Bitter Moon once again sees the master of the macabre, Roman Polanski, doing what he does best. With echoes of his earlier film 'Knife in the Water', Bitter Moon is a story of lust, revenge, betrayal, dependency and most of all; love, wrapped tightly around a coil of taboos and sexual perversions. While not as good as some of Polanski's other works, Bitter Moon still stands out as a highlight of his filmography and is certainly a lot better than many people have reputed it to be. The film follows two very different couples on a cruise ship; An English couple, Nigel and Fiona and an American cripple, Oscar, who is married to the French seductress Mimi. After meeting Mimi in the ship's bar, Nigel becomes entranced by her and later meets her husband and proceeds to learn his and wife's story...and it's not exactly pretty. With this movie, Polanski has obliterated the barriers of decency, and sometimes even makes you, the viewer, uncomfortable due to the goings on. And that's the mark of someone that knows how to handle his audience!

The acting in the movie really is first rate and there isn't a weak link there, especially not within the four leads. I'm no fan of Hugh Grant, in fact I hate the man, but he's exactly the right casting choice for this movie and it's almost a shame that he went on to make lots of rubbish movies after it. The two women, played by Kristin Scott Thomas and Emmanuelle Seigner are well done in terms of the characters and the acting, but it is Peter Coyote who steals the show as the abominable Oscar. His character in this film is the sort that actors can really get their teeth into, and Coyote bites down hard in this movie. Polanski's direction is excellent as usual and the gritty style mixed with the great director's edgy camera-work help to create a claustrophobic environment that allows Polanski to perfectly portray his characters' mindset. The themes on display are impressive, and in spite of the fact that it oversteps the mark on several occasions, Polanski's film always feels real and the lesson in the love that the film teaches is duly noted. Bitter Moon is a film that will get under your skin and stay there and not only that but there's enough happening to ensure that this is always a fun watch. Recommended viewing.

The film begins with the camera focused on the sea and the waves, and the music with the piano playing to good effect, then an increasingly enlarging zooming shot of a porthole. Then to the cruise liner where the four main characters are based. It is a story narrated and told by Oscar, played by Peter Coyote, who is wheelchair-bound, to Nigel, played by Hugh Grant, a man he meets on the cruise. Nigel is intrigued by an entwining and serpentine tale Oscar tells him, and so are we, and even though it starts to sound incredulous, he has to return to Oscar's quarters to hear more. The tale is so engrossing because it concerns Oscar's beautiful, sultry and seductive wife, Mimi, played mesmerisingly by Emmanuelle Seigner. Oscar is entranced at first with her and delves into all kinds of sexual games, then his passion for her begins to subside and he rejects her and leaves her alone on a plane. All the while Nigel's wife (Kristin Scott-Thomas) is becoming disillusioned with Nigel's fascination with Mimi and Oscar. I do not want to unveil anymore, just to implore you to watch this film and let it mesmerise you, like it did me. I felt as though I had to keep watching and somehow I did not want to leave and let go of it until the end.

This film is utterly compelling - it will have you glued to the screen. It's about 2 hours and 15 minutes long, yet it never loses its grip. Although there are a few "funny" moments, you can never be sure whether they were intentional or not. The pacing is slow but wonderfully methodical. But what really makes this picture delightful is the level of the acting of the male stars. While the female leads are also wonderful, the cynical Coyote and, especially, the charmingly shy Grant (his performance here is underrated) provide two different ways for the viewer to enter the story and their interplay is offbeat and endlessly entertaining. This is methodical, first-rate filmmaking by Polanski.

Roman Polanski again explores the depths of the human psyche in Bitter Moon, a magnificent epic tale of obsessive lust and the oh-so-familiar winding course of a passionate romance gone sour.

Bitter Moon centers around a familiar Polanski theme, that we are capable of being both torturer and victim, and usually both simultaneously. For anyone who doubts the validity of much of the past century of French intellectual thought, from the likes of Andre Gide, Foucault, and others, see this movie. For anyone who has been in a painful twisted relationship, see this movie. You will understand it. Some of it might be hard to stomach but that is the nature of truly great filmmaking.

A beautifully crafted movie, almost lyrical at times, Bitter moon is set in contemporary Paris but is told in a series of long complex flashbacks superbly narrated by Oscar (a terrific Peter Coyote) to Nigel (Hugh Grant as the usual British prat), both passengers on a cruise ship to India. Nigel and his wife Fiona, played by Kirsten Scott-Thomas, are on a holiday to enliven a stable but stale marriage. The couples become embroiled through the lurid tale of Oscar and Mimi's (Emmanuelle Seigner) love affair. Emmanuelle, Polanski's real-life wife, is superb and her incredible performance takes her from sumptuous beauty to complete wreck, a performance that deserves far more praise than was received. The lack of attention to her performance in this movie is no doubt due to the notoriety in the puritanical American press of her husband.

As a whole, Bitter Moon may not be Polanski's best film but some periods of the movie represent his very best work. Throughout, limits are pushed to the brink of tastelessness but Polanski masterfully pulls back just in time. The direction is complex and highly sophisticated and the movie arouses a range of emotions from dread to empathy to disgust to hilarity. The story line is far too complicated to synopsize appropriately in this review. Bitter moon is a great film, one of this reviewer's top 10 for the 1990s. Another must see! A word of caution, however, Bitter Moon is not a good date movie.

when i first saw this movie in 1992 i found it shocking by its erotic scenes and burn-out love story. i noticed it was a good movie, but that was the end of the story.

now i bought it in dvd and saw it for the 2nd time. it's a masterpiece.

everything blends perfectly in this film: 1990's paris, the colours of the film (etalonage), the excellent vangelis's music score, the evolution of a love story, the roles played by the 2 couples...

emmanuelle seigner is great playing the role of a nymph and a sorcerer, peter coyote is magnificent playing the part of a regular guy who gets insane, hugh grant becomes a perfect boring middle-class british bourgeois and kristin scott thomas her discreet wife looking for action.

one of the best amour-fou stories, along with louis malle's "damage". as rui wrote before, a must see.

Not for the vanilla. An interesting movie, and I enjoyed it in a way, though I can understand why others didn't like it. Not for everyone.

Every man should watch this film, it is a Polanski masterpiece. The parts are wonderfully played and the script is menacingly accurate. Why it didn't get greater exposure at the time or since baffles me, particularly as two of the principle characters have since become "famous" , Hugh Grant and Kristan Scott Thomas.

Most men will empathise with the morality or lack of in this confused relationship between an older man obsessed with his sexual object in the form of the stunning French actress, and her adoration for him. The haunting reality is that for so many the lack of depth in a relationship is frightening once the sexual desire diminishes. An awesome film 10 out of 10.

Many have thought this to be a low point for Polanski. Many critics blamed it on the strange sexual fetishism that the film celebrated. I guess its just creepy, coming from Polanski. Perhaps it was to much to watch coming from a man with such a disgraceful past. But Bitter Moon is so good, at being so risqué. This is some pretty heavy erotica. The performance by Peter Coyote and Emmanuelle Seigner as the on-and-off, shagging couple is damn delicious. They just let it all hang out, and I mean that in the most literal sense. I loved seeing those two lusting over each other, then completely tearing each other apart in over-sexed rage. It's so over-the-top. A few things bring it down a bit. One, I have a problem with dogs involved in sexual acts.. I think this movie may have violated a code in the AHA. Also, Hugh Grant. Going into this, I had my hand hovering over the stop button, because of.. well, Hugh Grant. He's a terrible actor. It's that same shy but dashing British gentleman over and over. It kind of works here, since his role is so insignificant, but he can still get under your skin. The scenes on the boat also seem unnecessary next to the exquisite tale that Oscar spins. I think the movie would have been perfect, if it was just that sick love story, and nothing more. I really appreciated Polanski's effort. This is a little- known, but satisfying art-house film.

The British Nigel (Hugh Grant) and his wife Fiona (Kristin Scott Thomas) are celebrating the seventh anniversary of their marriage in a cruise to Istanbul and Bombay. While in the trip, the American cripple and frustrated writer Oscar (Peter Coyote) gets close to Nigel, and invites him to listen to his unconventional love and hate story with his French wife Mimi (Emmanuelle Seigner). Oscar tells how he met Mimi in Paris and all their relationship, including details of their sexual life, along the past years. Meanwhile, Nigel feels a great attraction for the sexy and gorgeous Mimi, in a story with tragic consequences.

'Bitter Moon' has been released in Brazil on DVD this week, and yesterday I watched it for the fifth or sixth time, since it is one of my favorites movies ever. This story, about relationship, moral, hypocrisy, behavior, love and hate, fascinates me and shakes my emotions. I really believe that 'Bitter Moon', Peter Coyote and Emmanuelle Seigner have been not nominated to the Oscar because of the problems of Roman Polanski with the American Justice. Emmanuelle Seigner has her best role and performance in his career playing Mimi, an adorable French woman, very much in love with Oscar, who poisons and destroys her. Their love increases, reaches the top and crosses all the boundaries of a sexual relationship, including those 'accepted by a moralist and hypocrite society' (represented by Nigel), questioning how long a love can last, making Oscar bored of Mimi. The problem is that their relationship was supported by sex only, without friendship and respect, basic parameters for a long-term everyday life of a married couple. Hugh Grant is perfect in the role of a typical British man and symbol of a hypocrite society. And Kristin Scott Thomas has a minor, but very important part in the plot, playing a sexually repressed woman due to the behavior of her husband, who released the chains of her repression. The wonderful music of Vangelis and a soundtrack of nice songs, which includes a Brazilian pop song, conclude this masterpiece. My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): 'Lua de Fel' ('Bitter Moon')

Few critics took this film seriously when it was released, but it's now steadily beginning to garner attention. Today it ranks as one of Polanski's best.

"Bitter Moon" is a powerful film about love, and to view it as a sort of a soft-core titillation exercise by Polanski is to miss the point. The up-front sexuality of the film is there, not to merely provoke a cheap arousal from the viewer, but to point out how empty and hollow the couple's relationship really is. Most men will empathise with the morality (or lack of) in this confused relationship between an older man obsessed with his sexual object, and her adoration for him. The haunting reality is that for so many, the lack of depth in a relationship is frightening once the sexual desire diminishes.

9/10 - Filed with lush cinematography and romantic Parisian architecture, the film's only flaw is its Hugh Grant subplot. Everything else is electric, with a dark playfulness that only Polanski can deliver. Worth several viewings.

Note: Peter Coyote's room number, 5A, is the same as Tom Cruise's apartment from "Eyes Wide Shut". Both films have similar themes. When "Eyes Wide Shut" was released, Polanski made "The Ninth Gate", a film which features an "Eyes Wide Shut" styled ritual. Both films are similar in tone.

Bitter Moon manages to tantalise and tease us without ever coming across as explicit nor exploitative. Its study of relationships, and one relationship in particular, manages to cover some pretty far-reaching ground and comes complete with a lot of different sorts of content; but the film always keeps its eye on how these instances, and the nature of the relationship, shape the persons engaging. If we are excited, we are to be excited at the film-making skills of a certain Roman Polanski and how he unfolds this narrative, and not at what these people go through in order to become the people we see on screen.

In the broader sense of things, Bitter Moon is a really straight forward tale of two people meeting one other; getting to know one another and advancing things further and further to the point that they become sick of the sight of one other. But it is this premise stretched out to a time that most other directors would have a hard time keeping to in maintaining both audience interest and study. It is this premise that is actually used as a platform of greater things, something that allows a certain fascination in third parties initially unaware, but also gets across a certain sense of well-being. It feels as if Polanksi, through the characters of Nigel (Grant) and Fiona (Scott Thomas) whom have been happily married for so long, is trying to say that you should be thankful for what you've got and going bigger and better because your impulses demand you do, isn't always necessary.

Power play seems to be a primary ingredient in Bitter Moon; in what is an interesting concoction of romance, tragedy, noir and some scenes of both sheer horror and terror. The film is narrated from the confines of a cruise ship in the Mediterranean, bound for Turkey, by an American paraplegic named Oscar (Coyote). Whatever beginnings of being in control of a situation or a person seems to stem from his conversations with Hugh Grant's Nigel. Over time, Nigel will become more and more intrigued by what it is Oscar has to say about a certain carefree dancer on the boat named Mimi (Seigner), who is linked to Oscar in more ways than is first apparent.

But it isn't just this acquaintance as a relationship that Bitter Moon touches on, it breaks away from its primary strand of two people going through a love-fuelled grinder of friendship and fondness by providing us with enough material revolving around Nigel and Fiona's marriage which is threatened by the presence of Oscar and Mimi. It also looks at the notion of temptation, and a notion that one can become more and more intrigued about something as they spend time away from it, but hear, by way of word of mouth, as much as possible about said item. This is most apparent when Nigel spends more time with Oscar and hears of his deconstructing of Mimi as he delves into the past.

Mimi and Oscar's relationship encompasses most things; from BDSM to urolagnia and right the on way through to the notion of knowing your once female lover, now full time carer, is in the room next door with another man; keeping you in a sort of cuckolded state of helplessness. But rather than demonise these interests, fetishes or notions; Bitter Moon gets across a state of wrong-doing, a sense that the repercussions of these activities when used despairingly can bring about ill-fated results, confusion and can form cracks within the relationship.

If the audience are placed within the body of Nigel as this relatively clean-cut and seemingly perfectly innocent individual, then it is for the purpose of hearing Oscar's story unfold. About a quarter of the way through the piece, Mimi herself tells us, or Nigel, that Oscar is prone to making things up half the time anyway. Our minds are wary when we think back to an early chapter in their story when Oscar and Mimi bask in front of a glowing log fire whilst inhabiting an apartment in Paris, one that encompasses a perfect view of the Eiffel Tower as it stands there, not so far away in that you cannot see it, but not directly on it's front door step.

That's not to say anything else Oscar says in untrue; in every sense of the term, we are sucked into his world; his world that he used to be the boss of; his world in which he was the writer, the creator and the would-be brains behind everything. His world, in which he would submit to the presence of Mimi purely to feed a curiosity and because he was able to, but would later find himself on the other foot when she submits to him; his world, in which ego driven positions of power were exploited and the phrase 'what goes around, comes around' didn't exist – not least, until now. The film is an interesting piece, an intimate character and scenario study unfolding within the intimate and closed in space of a boat and its cabins, just as the new year beckons and new chapters threaten to begin just as ominously as they threaten to end.

What a sensitive work by roman Polanski.I must say this is a movie for all couples engaged in a strong relationship and somehow neglects the fact called dying love.All through the movie we realized that actually there is nothing wrong with the lovely french women and the paradise lover man living on allowances in Paris but it is that they have reached heights of their relationship in no time and after that there nothing to do except to live with it in the process of degradation or move on.We see some of the most stunning performances by all actors in the movie and Hugh grant playing the sophisticated mask of modern times also does well!!!!

This movie is incredible. The depth it goes from a romance to perverted sexual passion, and then into bitterness and abuse is so well done - Polanski makes it look too easy. The build up to the film's end is just great. If someone was to ever ask me of a good catharsis film this would be in my top 5 examples.

British couple Fiona and Nigel Dobson are sailing to Istanbul en route to India. They encounter a beautiful French woman...

I find this film very difficult to judge or even to categorize. It is clearly a Roman Polanski film, as evidenced by the casting of Emmanuelle Seigner and the depraved sexual situations (a golden shower, lesbianism, and some strange pig mask). Having known Peter Coyote primarily from "A Walk to Remember", it was quite a shock to hear him talk so dirty, drink milk from a woman's breast and engage in oral sex. Well played, Pete.

Hugh Grant is the main character, despite the fact he has far less screen time than Coyote or Seigner. He appears in the wraparound section, with most of the film being a flashback. But the basic plot revolves around the idea of fidelity -- will Nigel (Grant) cheat on his wife with this foreign beauty? He has her husband's permission, but does he have the disloyal drive to follow through? (This gets more complex as the film progresses, but you really need not know more just yet.) While I have found Seigner attractive before, this film does not present her well in my opinion. Exotic, yes. Sexy, no. But the men in the film would disagree.

There could be some discussion about what "bitter moon" means. The phrase is never uttered in the film or clearly explained. There is a scene that features a moon that might be called bitter (it tastes of "poison" to one person and "sweet" to another). Does this suggest that a bitter moon would be a situation where two people share very different outlooks or viewpoints? Perhaps. Or it could simply be the reverse of a honeymoon.

If we were to list Polanski's films from best to worst, this would appear somewhere in the middle. Perhaps the lower middle. By no means does it achieve the level of his masterpieces, but it does not come up short like "Cul-de-Sac" (though that film has its merits, too). The film is great as a character study or as a discussion of love and relationships, but it drags enough at times that it cannot be called flawless. Grant fans will be disappointed, but Polanski fans ought to give it a fair shot.

Extremely well made, extremely well acted, extremely intense and disturbing, and extremely conscious of areas of the sexual psyche that I'd never seen so honestly explored in a movie. According to Polanski, it is not love and hate which are opposite, but love and indifference. Obsessive sex gives way, at least between the two lovers of Bitter Moon, to a hatred as savage as cold-blooded murder or all-out war.

These extremities of love and hate work themselves out in a game of power and manipulation, and it remains the only vehicle by which these two can merge with one another so as to lose both their independence and the rest of their inhibitions and illusions. In the end, they become so bound up in their mutual need that the sex itself is no longer central. They might as well be prisoners lashed forever to the same stake, learning actually to enjoy the various torments that the other is able to inflict. Freud thought similarly that all sexual love was ultimately a form of masochism--identification with a partner whom one has caused to suffer. These questions are essential as long as the blood continues to throb in us; and, whether or not we find Polanski's story credible (I do), any thinking person would recognize it as a serious attempt to define who we humans are, both as rutting mammals and as something more.

Not as much as underrated as much as forgotten, "Bitter Moon" is a stellar portrayal of a dysfunctional marital relations ans a story of the edge between love and madness which opens the question whether love can make all of us madmen. The movie contains powerhouse performances from all actors involved and the fact that whole plot is happening on a boat leaves a sense of claustrophobia and suffocating. However, the real story and background lie in the flashbacks of a leading actor, played by Peter Coyote whose intimate confession to a fellow passenger (played by Hugh Grant) about his marriage, pushes Hugh's character in a bizarre triangle between his own wife (played by Kristin Scott Thomas) and Peter's character's wife (played by Emmanuelle Seigner). Both married couples are faced with desire, self-destruction and deceit in this poignant drama, which does carry a recognisable trademark of its director, Roman Polanski.

I found this film extremely well done for several reasons I will nominate.

It debates some moral issues, how far is it acceptable for a society still full of consevative people, such as the one performed by Hugh Grant, to acept a relationship such as that of the main characters? It is totally at the border of normality (meaning normality not necessarily what's good but what's common). The film also touches strongly the theme of hipocrisie (probably wrong spelled, this word.) once more in the character of Hugh Grant who, despite showing all the time disgut and repugnace for the story he is being told, is always secretly desiring and wanting something equivalent to happen to him (this hipocratic attitude may be the result of growing up in a world and a society where this kind of sexual liberties and practices are repressed and in here once more we are taken to atrong moral issues which take us to rethink the whole thing...).

Apart from this questions this film makes me also think about the relationships between men and women... Is there an everlasting love? or at least an everlasting relationship?... Suddendly I recalled Schopenhauer who claimed that no man could be happy with only one woman... maybe this film is showing that he was right... the pace of the relationship between Mimi and the writer was so high that they just emptied all there possibilities very soon, but if we put that at the scale of a normal marriage, aren't all the possibilities also tried at the end of 10 20 or 30 years? Can a marriage last happy for both till "death tears them apart" ?...

Besides this few topics of discussion (to which I could add some more if I just remembered them right now) I found this film very well directed with some beautiful scenes... also some strongs scenes that stay with us... Excelent performances for the three leading roles... Kristin Scott Thomas is also good in here but not so as in other films also because her somewhat small part in this one didn't allow her to show more than she did. This film proves once more Roman Polansky as one of the greatest directors of our times, since he shows he is totally in control of every detail of direction (I enjoyed the increase of the speed together with the increase of intensity of the relationship among the couple). Good dialogues but specially excelent speeches of the writer whenever he becomes the narrator which is often... Also an excelent note for the soundtrack by Vangelis and other well known songs which appear along. A must see.

British couple Fiona (Kristin Scott Thomas) and Nigel Dobson (Hugh Grant) are on a cruise to India. They encounter Mimi (Emmanuelle Seigner) in despair. Her crippled American husband Oscar (Peter Coyote) recounts their story. He was living off of his family trust fund in Paris trying to be a writer when he fell for her. Their relationship suffered ups and downs. He became emotionally abusive until his accident. The tables are turned on the helpless Oscar.

The basic structure leads me to question Oscar's story from the start. Honestly, it wouldn't have surprised me if Oscar gets up and walks away at the end of the movie. In that way, the past isn't quite as compelling as I wonder about its validity all the way through. I would have liked more intrigue on the ship. Hugh Grant could be made to do some compromising positions. I do like the cat and mouse game over the differing levels of sexual adventurism. The movie is mesmerizing from start to finish.