The Blue Villa

The Blue Villa (French title: Un bruit qui rend fou, A noise that renders one crazy or A maddening noise) is a 1995 French crime thriller film, with a scenario and dialogue by Alain Robbe-Grillet, direction credits going to Dimiti Duclerq, and production credits attributed to Jean Duclerq. The film stars Fred Ward and Arielle Dombasle. It was entered into the 45th Berlin International Film Festival.[1]

Un bruit qui rend fou
Directed byDimitri de Clercq (Credited as Dimitri Duclerq).
Written byAlain Robbe-Grillet (Scenario and dialogue).
Produced byJaques de Clercq
Domenique Fobe
Gerard Ruey
Jerome Paillard
Stephen Beckner
Jaqueline Pierreux
StarringFred Ward
Arielle Dombasle
Sandrine Le Berre
Charles Tordjman
Dimitris Poulikakos
Michalis Maniatis
Christian Maillet
Distributed byNomad Films
Release date
  • 17 February 1995 (1995-02-17) (Berlin International Film Festival)
Running time
100 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
Budget2,700,000 BEF (= 600,000 $)

Plot

Living on an isolated Greek island are a few native Greeks; several Chinese who spend their days playing mahjong; Nordmann, a boozy screenwriter; and seductive Sarah la-Blonde, the madam at the Blue Villa, the town whorehouse, in which Sarah hides Santa, alias Lotus Blossom. Sarah is teaching Santa to sing an aria from Wagner. One day, Frank arrives on the island. At first, he does not speak and appears to be looking for something or someone. It is later learned that he was involved in the supposed death of Santa, who just might be Nordmann's daughter. It is up to the local police chief, Thieu, to figure out what parts of the story are true and what parts are fiction.

A Film Maudit in need of rescuing.

This is an exceptional film in which Alain Robbe-Grillet revists many of the tropes, or obessions, that have filled his literary and cinematic career all the way back to The Voyeur. The direction from Dimitri Duclerq is admirable. Duclerq currently operates and has operated as a film director and producer under the name Dimiti de Clerq. Oddly, this film has been struck from almost all reference materials regarding Alain Robbe-Grillet. The film was most certainly shown in Berlin and New York in 1995, and after that apparently went straight to video cassette courtesy of Nomad distribution. Obviously, with this being one of the best scripts from one of France's greatest authors, the film should receive immediate restoration and release on Blu-Ray. As of 2023, this sadly has not happened.


Cast
  • Fred Ward - Frank
  • Arielle Dombasle - Sarah la-Blonde
  • Charles Tordjman - Edouard 'Nord' Nordmann
  • Sandrine Le Berre - Santa
  • Dimitris Poulikakos - Police chief Thieu
  • Christian Maillet - The father
  • Muriel Jacobs - Kim
  • Michalis Maniatis - Mars

Notes
  1. "Berlinale: 1995 Programme". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2012-01-01.

References
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