The Quietus Radio
Low Culture Podcast sampler: Betty Blue
It's another sampler for the Quietus Low Culture Podcast, which goes out each month to our Subscriber and Subscriber Plus tier supporters . This month, tQ founders Luke Turner and John Doran cast their eyes over a controversial classic of French cinema. To access the full podcast, further information on which can be found below, you can sign up here or look for the Subscribe button on tQ's homepage. Subscribers also receive bonus essays, newsletters and playlists, as well as instant access to hours of past Low Culture Podcasts. Luke was drawn in as a young man by the promise of steamy sex scenes, John, as a teenager, because he thought watching it would make him look like a Gauloise-puffing hipster. But now they are in different stages of their advancing ‘careworn’ years, how do the Low Culture Podcast hosts feel about the 1986 film Betty Blue ? While Luke had forgotten just how grim it was, conversely John hadn’t remembered just how funny it can be (in different parts, of course). Both now have a deeper appreciation of the painterly eye of Jean-Jacques Beineix, not to mention his commentary on a France coming to terms with the appalling failure to live up to initial promise shown by the government of Francois Mitterrand. They wonder to what extent the (disparaging) critical brickbat of cinéma du look was even deserved, given that there are very few blockbuster directors working today in Hollywood who couldn’t learn a thing or three from this glorious film. The pair consider the odd structural similarities Betty Blue has with Rumble Fish and Withnail And I , in as much that all three concern unusually close relationships where one half of the couple must die for the other to thrive. Closer inspection reveals that all seem to act as commentary on the failure of the countercultural 60s, the spirit of which must be crushed in order for creativity in the neoliberal 80s to thrive… And the pair make a plea for good – rather than censorious – criticism which helps everyone navigate great art that is nevertheless very problematic (which this film undoubtedly is, for several reasons). Thanks to Alannah Chance for producing this pod.
