The Blood Oranges (1997)

Synopsis (spoilers): The film is told in two different time frames, which are intercalated. Here, I will tell the events in a chronological fashion. Cyril and Fiona live on a tropical island with their kids. One day, they rescue a family from a van that flipped and they start a friendship with them. Fiona is immediately attracted to Hugh, a one-armed photographer who seems to be attracted to her but doesn't let it go to a physical level. Cyril, on the other hand, fucks Hugh's wife, Catherine, on their first night together. Fiona begins to feel frustrated by Hugh's refusal to fuck her. They play a game of seduction in which Cyril and Fiona are a completely open couple and try to bring Hugh and Catherine into their hedonistic world. One day at the beach Fiona gets topless and Catherine decides to do the same. They perceive the approach of Meredith, Hugh and Catherine's teenage daughter; Cyril meets her halfway and she manifests her awareness and disapproval of their mutual seduction games. Cyril takes her back to the house. Cyril and Hugh meet Rosella, a local girl who works as a domestic at Cyril's house and to whom Hugh is attracted; Hugh takes nude photos of her. As the situation between Hugh and Fiona doesn't seem to evolve, Cyril decides to have a talk with him; he incites Hugh to yield to his attraction to Fiona; Hugh warns Cyril that there is more going on than Cyril is aware of. Hugh claims that Fiona is in love with him and is ready to leave Cyril for him. Cyril tells Hugh to let love follow its course. One day, Hugh takes the four of them to visit some ruins; they go down into a cave, and in there they find a weird metal object, old and full of rust. They bring it to the surface and find out it is a chastity belt. They all are uncomfortable with it, except Hugh, who seems to derive some pleasure from their discomfort. On the following evening, Cyril goes to see Catherine in her room, but she behaves strangely, and rejects him, sending him away. Cyril refuses to go, and as he touches her, he discovers that she is using the chastity belt; Hugh forced her to put it on. Cyril tells her to stay put and wait for him while he goes out to find Hugh and talk him into his senses. He does that, and has an argument with Hugh, who is angry because he found out that Cyril had sex with Catherine; after some discussion, Hugh finally seems to agree with Cyril's liberal ideas, and decides to yield to his desires toward Fiona, and give Catherine a bit of freedom too. He goes to meet Fiona, and Cyril returns to Catherine and removes the chastity belt from her. As the dawn comes, Cyril leaves Catherine before Meredith awakes. When he gets to his house, he finds Hugh and Fiona fucking. He is glad with it, and stands for a few minutes outside the window, listening to them make love. He does not interrupt them. The next day, all four of them are happy on the lawn, celebrating the wonders of free love. The following night, Fiona alerts Cyril that Hugh is missing. Cyril tells her not to worry, but she is certain that something is wrong, because Catherine is sleeping in her room, and that means Hugh is all alone; she thinks something may have happened to him. Cyril goes out in search of Hugh; he goes to Hugh's photographic studio, where he usually spends hours on his own. When he enters, he finds Hugh hanging from a rope, unconscious. They cut the rope and try to revive him, but it is useless: he is dead; it turns out that he accidentally choked himself to death while masturbating to Rosella's photo (choking oneself while masturbating is known to increase pleasure during orgasm; this practice is shown in other films such as Ken Park (2002), and, if memory serves me, Ai no corrida (1976)). Fiona reasons that Catherine will be in no condition to take care of her kids during some time, due to her state of shock, and decides to leave the island with them, along with her own kids. The following events are shown intercalated with the former ones, during the course of the movie. Cyril and Catherine stay on the island, but separated; Catherine remains in a hospital, or asylum, to recover; she is in such a state that she will speak to no one. Meanwhile Rosella turns down her suitors, perhaps in the hope of being loved by Cyril, but he develops psychological impotence, and doesn't get near her. He visits Catherine often; eventually, she recovers and leaves the hospital. They wait for the return of Fiona and the kids, and perhaps the restart of their lives.
Appraisal: I like the work of this couple of filmmakers, which seems to have a thematic coherence that is not so common nowadays; their films are mostly inspired by literary works (in this case a 1971 novel by John Hawkes), to which they lend a strong cinematic flavor. That being said, I must acknowledge that this is not among their best work to date; much of the film relies on voice-over, which means that they were not able to translate it into cinematic form. We tend to get a little bored, especially in the first half of the film. On top of it, I was not too impressed with the performances; some of them were better than others, but somehow they seemed to be hitting on one single note, which becomes kind of monotonous. The film is not half bad, though. Its theme is the search for pleasure, and I don't think anyone would consider it irrelevant or uninteresting per se; the characters are believable and interesting, yet somewhat underdeveloped. The score and cinematography are very good. The dialog is well written, both in a literary sense and in a functional one, as it illustrates the characters' personalities and spur the evolution of the drama.
Rating: 58