Sex Is Comedy

Catherine Breillat’s behind-the-scenes account of shooting FAT GIRL stars Anne Parillaud as Breillat surrogate Jeanne, a director intent on getting her film’s most intimate sequence just right—even if it means alternately coaxing and battling her fragile, needy young actors (Grégoire Colin and Roxane Mesquida, virtually recreating her role from FAT GIRL). Once again exploring her signature obsessions, Breillat uses this metafictional format to investigate the ethical responsibilities of the artist, the messy logistics of running a set, and the slippery nature of realism, as applied to one of filmmaking’s most challenging ordeals: the simulated sex scene. Culminating in one actor’s ribald high jinks with a body prosthetic and another’s breakthrough into shattering emotional territory, SEX IS COMEDY is Breillat’s heady, brilliant synthesis of the ridiculous and the sublime.