Simone Barbès ou la vertu (1980) - film review

Simone Barbès works in a Parisian porn cinema.  Her evenings consist of checking tickets and watching a strange assortment of men drift in and out of the film theatre.  Afterwards, she takes herself to a lesbian bar to unwind, before going home with an impromptu date.

This first film from Marie-Claude Treilhou has many good ideas and does reveal a promising auteur in its aspiring director.  However, the lackadaisical “cinema vérité” style soon becomes tiresome and it is hard to engage with principal character when so little is revealed other than a tragic sense of ennui.   There’s a nice touch of irony in the film’s first half, but this fails to last into the second half, which merely provides an unimaginative and painfully dull portrayal of a night in a lesbian nightclub.

© James Travers 2005

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