Betty Blue
ベティ・ブルー 愛と激情の日々
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A handyman and a woman who burns down their beach house; the film's poster won the 1987 César for best poster.
Zorg, a man in his thirties who once wrote novels, works as the handyman for a colony of beach chalets at Gruissan on France's Mediterranean coast, and lives in one of them. Betty, nineteen, impulsive and volatile, walks out of her job and into his life, and they begin a passionate affair. When his boss orders him to paint every chalet, she turns on the man. After a row in which she wrecks the chalet, she finds the manuscripts Zorg had put away, reads his novel in one sitting and decides that he is a genius. Following another argument with the boss, she empties the chalet and sets it on fire.
They move to the outskirts of Paris and stay with Betty's friend Lisa, whose new boyfriend, Eddy, runs a pizzeria. Zorg and Betty work there, and the four of them drink and laugh through the nights. Betty types out Zorg's novel and sends it to publishers. At work she lashes out at a demanding customer. Zorg hides the rejection letters, but she finds one, goes to the publisher's home and attacks him, and Zorg frightens the man into dropping the charges.
When Eddy's mother dies, he gives them her house and piano shop in Marvejols, in the Lozère. Zorg likes the quiet life; Betty's moods grow darker. A home test says she is pregnant and they are happy, until a laboratory test says she is not. She sinks into depression and tells Zorg she hears voices. One day he comes home to find her gone: she has gravely injured herself and is in hospital. That evening a publisher rings to accept his novel. On his next visit he finds her strapped to the bed and unresponsive, and a doctor tells him she may never recover. Zorg, blaming the drugs, attacks the doctor and is thrown out. That night he returns dressed as a woman, says goodbye to her and kills her. Later, at home, he sits down to write. The white cat watches him, and he hears Betty's voice asking whether he is writing. He tells her he is thinking.
Starring
Béatrice Dalleas Betty
An impulsive, volatile young woman who moves in with Zorg, believes he is a great writer, and gradually loses her hold on her mind.
Betty’s story
Betty quits waitressing and moves into Zorg's chalet, and when his boss orders him to paint every chalet, she turns on the man. Finding Zorg's old manuscripts, she reads his novel in one sitting and decides he is a genius; after another row with the boss she burns the chalet down. Near Paris she types the book out and sends it to publishers, attacks a demanding customer, and, finding a rejection letter Zorg has hidden, goes to the publisher's home and attacks him. In Marvejols her moods darken. A home test says she is pregnant, and a laboratory test says she is not. She sinks into depression and tells Zorg she hears voices. Then she gravely injures herself. In hospital she is sedated, then strapped to the bed and unresponsive, and there Zorg kills her.
Jean-Hugues Angladeas Zorg
A handyman at a beach resort who stopped writing long ago, and follows Betty wherever her moods take them.
Zorg’s story
Zorg is in his thirties, doing odd jobs among the beach chalets at Gruissan, when Betty moves in. She finds the novels he stopped writing and believes in them; when she burns the chalet he leaves with her. Near Paris he hides the rejection letters, and after she attacks a publisher he frightens the man into dropping the charges, telling him she is the only good thing in his life. In Marvejols he likes the quiet while her moods darken. The day she is taken to hospital, a publisher accepts his novel. Told she may never recover, he blames her drugs and attacks the doctor. That night he comes back dressed as a woman, says goodbye and kills her. At home he sits down to write, and hears Betty's voice asking if he is writing. He is thinking, he says.
Gérard Darmonas Eddy
Lisa's boyfriend, who runs a pizzeria near Paris and, after his mother dies, hands the couple her house and piano shop.
Consuelo de Havilandas Lisa
Betty's close friend, who takes the couple in when they arrive near Paris with nothing.
Why it matters
Betty Blue begins as a love story of great physical intensity and turns, without dropping its tone of devotion, into a story about mental illness. Zorg loves Betty completely, and for most of the film love is his only answer to what is happening to her: her rages are taken as passion, then as faith in his talent, then as something to cover for, until she harms herself and a hospital takes over. The film asks what a lover owes someone whose mind is failing. Its answer, the act at the end, is offered as love, and it can just as well be seen as the last of his failures to get her help. In France it drew more than 3.6 million admissions in 1986, the biggest success of Jean-Jacques Beineix's career, and it was nominated for the Academy Award for best foreign-language film.