Sunday | December 21, 2008 3:00 pm

Max mon amour

Screening on Film

Directed by Nagisa Oshima.
With Charlotte Rampling, Anthony Higgins, Victoria Abril.
France/US/Japan, 1986, 35mm, color, 98 min.
French and English with English subtitles.
Print source: The French Ministry

Oshima's long admiration for Luis Buñuel finds its full flowering in this provocative tale of amour fou written in collaboration with Buñuel's frequent screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere. Charlotte Rampling stars as a diplomat's wife whose amorous attention to an affectionate chimpanzee infuriates her husband and sparks a wonderfully deadpan and deliciously unpredictable farce. Oshima's unexpected comic talents shine in this inspired and subversive cross-breeding of King Kong and Belle du Jour.