The Moon in the Gutter (1983) User Reviews

Typical early 80's French movie

[msultan · 5/10 · 6 January 2004]

I have to say that this was a pretty bad movie. The acting was bad, the editing was bad, the story was bad. I can see, however, how a movie like this can pave the way for something like Delicatessen, La cité des enfants perdus, and even Les amants du Pont-Neuf.

Actually, this reminded me of Carax's Mauvais Sang, which was really horrible but paved the way to his masterpiece Les amants du Pont-Neuf. Similarly, this is a precursor to Beineix's masterpiece, 37•2 le matin (version integrale). The focus on tormented relationships and uncertain geographies can be interesting, but really, not in this movie. The music was good, but not always well-adapted to the scenes it accompanied. Then again, by no means does this movie aim to be realistic (which explains the acting). Too bad. Interesting elements but boring results.

Trash art!

[DukeEman · 5/10 · 25 September 1999]

Poor Gerard who has to put up with a dead sister, a crazy brother, a drunkard father, an overweight loud step-mother, a nympho of a lover and a beautiful wealthy woman. It all adds up to trash art by the master of high quality cinema, Jean-Jacques Beineix!

Dull

[david.bober · 5/10 · 6 November 2000]

One would imagine that any film staring Depardieu, Kinski and Abril would be worth watching for their performances alone... but not in this case. The pace of the story was slow, and its premise was instantly forgettable. NOT recommended.

The introverted family member of Diva

[tony_le_stephanois · 11 June 2015]

La lune dans le caniveau is definitely different in comparison to director Beineix's much more straightforward crime film Diva (1981). It is more like an introverted, dramatic family member. We observe a man who tries to deal with his mistress and his alcoholic brother, and wants revenge for the death of his sister. Is this story very interesting? I wouldn't say so. Most scenes are long and tedious (the film has a two hour runtime). Only real fans of either Beineix or the actors will keep their concentration until the very end.

The pleasure for the viewer lies elsewhere: the stylistic, colorful cinematography. The film has playful use of lights EVERYWHERE. It is visually incredibly detailed for a film from begin 80's, which were usually bleak on purpose. Both films from Beineix, Diva and this one, weren't praised for its renewal. On the contrary: they were equally bashed by the critics. Style over substance, they said. Which, as an argument about film, seems always ridiculous to me. Isn't cinema BY DEFINITION about style? It is not a book on screen, after all. How is a film as 8 1/2 not style over substance?

While I'll think Beineix was quite adventurous with his colorful style, perhaps even ahead of its time, as films have become more style over substance ever since (take for example V for vendetta, Spring Breakers, Ixjana, City of lost children, The strange color of your body's tears). Also quite modern are these out of the ordinary female characters, played wonderfully by Victoria Abril and Natassja Kinski. Depardieu's acting perhaps seems a bit shallow but he is in fact right in tone with the introverted style of the film. This was a period (begin 80's) in which he excelled in playing lead characters (Danton, Le chevre, Le dernier métro, Buffet froid). I rate this film 7/10. Despite the visual feast, I'm just too impatient to enjoy a film at such a slow pace. An one-hour cut would do magic for this film.

a career in the gutter

[mjneu59 · 2/10 · 9 December 2010]

The second feature from the director of 'Diva' was met with enough ridicule to suggest a settling of old scores, but unfortunately the film deserved every insult it inspired. No one can say Jean-Jacques Beineix wasn't asking for trouble, and the end result of his efforts to create a heavily stylized, romantic mood piece is an unforgivably empty and pretentious melodrama so laughably bad it might almost be a parody of modern European art-schlock cinema. The ubiquitous Gerard Depardieu plays a burly stevedore who wanders the docks of a nameless city, brooding over the unknown assailant who killed his sister; soon he begins brooding over sultry Nastassia Kinski instead, and they elope. Or do they? Every tantalizing hint of a plot disappears (usually within a scene or two) behind a welter of self-indulgent gestures, none of which could possibly make any sense to anyone except the writer-director. At best the film might be dismissed as a failed experiment; more accurately, it's a near masterpiece of unintended awfulness.

pretty pointless

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 2 March 2006]

When I read the jacket on the videotape, it sounded like an interesting story. A guy's sister is raped and he can't get over it and continues looking for her assailant. However, that really isn't what the movie was about. While it is true she is raped and he talks about finding her attacker, so much of the movie just seems banal and pointless. Along the way, we are shown a variety of naked women and images that MIGHT be true (or a dream or who knows),...but none of it really adds up to anything. While some might find it surreal and artsy, I just found it boring and a real drag. It's a shame, too, as the movie stars Gerard Depardieu--his talents are pretty much wasted, as anyone could have sleep-walked through the movie as they had his character do.

WILL EVENTUALLY BE ACCORDED HIGHER STATUS IN SURREALIST CINEMA.

[rsoonsa · 10/10 · 1 December 2004]

Jean-Jacques Beineix recently stated (transl.) "An auteur does not speak the truth" and here, within this enormously powerful film, he but flirts with reality, while most of the director's creative fires feed upon his singular employment of colour and set design. The style of Beineix, as a cinematic architect, may be designated as Rococo with, as he avers, a preeminence of (transl.) "atmosphere over narrative", fostering an element of whimsy, greatly enhanced by his recognition of a symbolic authority resting upon commercial advertising and its adjuncts. A studied development of exaggerated imagination marks the film, each frame being carefully composed for a production that originally extended to over four and one half hours, in the face of Beineix' assertion that he abhors filmic structuring. This organizational factor, at least in part, stems from an obligatory reflex of the director as recognition of the film's source, a novel by David Goodis, wherein the action occurs primarily at and about dockside Philadelphia, transferred here to an undesignated Marseille, and with the novelist's prototypical women intact, one, Loretta (Nastassia Kinski), angelic and carnally unattainable, ("you are pure" declaims Gerard Depardieu to her), the second, Bella (Victoria Abril) triumphantly lusty and possessed of will such as the work's protagonist, Gerard Delmas (Depardieu) apparently does not have. Delmas is compulsively drawn to the site of his sister's gruesome death by her own hand following her sexual violation, hoping to discover keys to what prompted her suicide, to the identity of her assailant, and to a rationale behind his own obsession. Thus is formed a basis for a plot, such as it may be, yet style is properly victor over substance with this undervalued and enigmatic piece that is nearly all filmed in studio, the greatest portion lighted by arcs and photo floods, with scoring contributed in elegant and operatically motival fashion by Gabriel Yared, and paced throughout, as Beineix describes it, with (transl.) "slow gestures forming the choreography."

forgetable except that Nastassja shows off her French

[fookoo · 2/10 · 6 August 2003]

Dreary and very slow. Almost pointless. There maybe something here, but that would be a real stretch. A game between the socio-economic classes: the have's and have-not's. Pseudo-psychological? Is it possible that Nastassja falls for a male bimbo? It is no wonder that this film will probably never see the light of day in a DVD format. The darkish, grim European dock/waterfront slightly lightened up a bit by a red convertible car, driven by Nastassja.

Moon like a waking dream/ nightmare

[roger-212 · 8/10 · 20 December 2011]

As has already been said, "The Moon in the Gutter" compared unfavorably with Beineix's previous light and playful "Diva." It also cost too much, which at the time ('80s) was being widely reported as some kind of aesthetic crime. But "Moon" seems to be nothing more powerful as a waking dream/nightmare. With its constant references to being in a dream, the beautiful and artificial sets and lighting, and the way people, cars, and the camera move through and around each other, the film, with a relatively low level of dialogue, manifests an urgent physicality.

The camera love the leads, particularly Depardieu and Kinski. Depardieu is shot in repose often, a block of smoldering anger while Kinski seems almost like a light flare of red chiffon he can't grasp. Some reviewers seem to bemoan the lack of a clear mystery or resolution, but the very text of the film seems to stem from the inside of Gerard's (Depardieu) inner thought processes - the sweat, the lights, the suspicion. He flares in anger almost without provocation and can't get the vision of his dead sister out of his head or his dreams - or that razor out of his hand.

The billboard, "Try Another World," is a cruel tease, a promise he can ultimately not follow. At the end, he is not with the girl who may save him but we wouldn't believe it if she did. Some viewers may want a clearer denouncement of what comes of Loretta, but the stance, the razor in his hand, the billboard impotent on the other side of the glass and the conflicted schizophrenic cadence of the music says everything you need to know.

Beineix's use of symbol to express mood and plot subtext was better submerged in "Betty Blue," a big hit.

The moon is not in the sky, it is in the gutter, and there it is strangely beautiful, reflecting another world that is unobtainable, all surface, threatening and like a model on a hill.

138 very long minutes of pure over indulgent crap.

[jaybob · 3/10 · 5 November 2009]

The director & co-screenplay writer Jean Jacques Beineix must of thought he was the French personification of the director of Heaven's Gate, which we know or should know was an overlong indulgent movie.

La Lune Dans Le Caniveau (The Moon is in the Gutter) is of the same cloth,pretty at times to look at but mostly grim needless artless & uninteresting. A better translated title would be The Moon is in the Sewer. it is that dreary & boring.

Now this does have a very well known cast of 1983 & still are known today. Gerard Depardieu was 35 when this was made & he sure was very handsome & sexy. Victoria Abril was very young,sexy and very beautiful.The same goes for Nastassia Kinski.

These three fine talents do NOT rise above the base script.

This is a very long 138 minute film, I have heard that the director (like Cimino) had a much longer movie. The film may have been a good movie at about 80 minutes.

Ratings: *1/2 (out of 4) 42 points(out of 100)IMDB 3 (out of 10)

Symbolism abounds

[PhoenixCinder · 10/10 · 17 September 2003]

I saw this what ten years ago. It's timeless. A tale of intrigue. Not for those with limited attention spans! Nastassia's first appearance left me gasping. Lives interconnected, the rich in the playground of the working class. And that ice eating scene had me on the edge of my seat. So dark and challenging. Very few like this out there on the market. I am Glad it wasn't a hit - why spoil it with yet another US remake!!

A dream that leaves a trace

[haggar · 9/10 · 11 February 2001]

Warning: some minor spoilers ahead!

This movie is high cinematic art, but it requires a fine sensibility to enjoy. Beineix creates a dreamworld, with the sublime and frightening emotions of dreams, and that characteristic dreamlike fluctuation of the plot, where you can expect anything in the next moment, good or bad. And indeed, it ends up in a nightmare, and you wake up asking yourself why was it a nightmare, why did all of it happen the way it did, and ultimately, what is the purpose of life and the meaning of existence.

All the actors, in my opinion, did an excellent job, quite aware, I guess, of the lofty artistic goals Beineix tries to achieve. All the roles are perfectly believable, because they are not reduced to simpletons as Hollywood often does, but are provided with all the contrasting emotions, weaknesses and strenghts, virtues and vice of real human beings.

This movie won't be appreciated by everybody, because it wasn't intended for everybody, just as Mahler's symphonies are not appreciated by everybody. Fortunately, there are the pleasant tunes of Strauss to satisfy the public at large.

Needs DVD Release in either NTSC or PAL Format!

[dirtypearl · 10/10 · 8 July 2005]

Most printed words regarding this film is usually all negative. Criticisms for story and lack of coherence are usually the main issues. The film has has a sad reputation overall, but the atmosphere and cinematography makes up for any shortcomings in the script. The cast-particularly Kinski and Abril really make the film. Depardieu's dedication is serious enough as the lead protagonist. Check the works of Kinski and you'll find no other film of hers giving the aura and beguiling beauty display in The Moon In the Gutter. Regardless,the movie is better than most coming out these days. I would rank it highly with films like "Betty Blue" and the works of Almodovar and Polanski.Hopefully, a proper DVD issue of some kind is imminent.

Good but cut

[marcusbabel · 31 August 2003]

It's a pity we were unable to watch the complete version of the movie, that lasts nearly 5 hours. It might give us a complete story that is too short here. Maybe one day Beineix will release it on dvd...

La Lune Dans Le Caniveau : A masterpiece of French cinema which has been unjustly ignored by French critics.

[FilmCriticLalitRao · 10/10 · 6 October 2014]

One plausible reason why French critics failed to appreciate the beauty of this film might have something to do with it being a "mood" based film. It must be stated with caution that films with a certain 'mood' take their own time to settle in the minds of viewers. This is one reason why some critics must have failed to interpret "Moon in the gutter" in the right spirit. Jean Jacques Beineix and his screen writing collaborator Olivier Mergault must be congratulated for their realistic depiction of the milieu from which this film's seedy characters come. They give an air of authenticity to an area where one can easily find all types of low lives who do not hesitate a bit to waste their time over petty fights. It is rather a sad feeling to read a lot of negative comments about French director Jean Jacques Beineix's film "Moon in the gutter". The reason for not liking this film could be many as there is no universal agreement about audiences and their tastes. However, it must be remembered that all filmmakers have the right to portray their visions on the big screen in the manner which suits them the best. From this yardstick, nobody has the right to censure Monsieur Beineix for his film which has also been hailed by many critics outside France as a masterpiece.

Artsy, yet has staying charm and a great car

[arthaupt1 · 23 November 2010]

I saw this movie in the early '80s and found it artsy and messy yet with staying charm. Have just seen it again on DVD and still like it. The disregard of reality and logic are almost Lynch-like. The cast is quite good, and the messy households are like something from A Streetcar Named Desire.

I dimly recall that director Beineix was going to follow this movie with an extravagant production of Marc Behm's vampire novel "The Ice Maiden." (Behm a favorite writer of mine.) But "Moon" bit the dust at the box office, and as a result, the "Ice" project got scrapped. Maybe it'll get made someday.

Per the 'Net, "Moon"'s much-in-evidence red car is an early '60s Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder.