Demonlover

 Saw Demonlover, another film by Olivier Assayas, the guy who directed Boarding Gate.  His obsessions are: luxurious hotels and corporate environments, women in trouble, and the ambiguities between nations, companies, and high-powered executives.  This film hits all three of these marks.  It follows a French woman who is negotiating with a Japanese hentai company for distribution rights which she intends to sell to an American company.  In this mix, there's a man she keeps meeting with who seems to be giving her marching orders.  Later on, she is in trouble.

I liked this film okay, but it definitely has flaws.  Here's what I enjoyed: the film's murky ambiguity.  It's never clear who's manipulating who, who's really in charge, or what anyone's alliances are.  The whole thing is dizzying and shadowy and very nice.  I also liked the frank multiculturalism of the film.  Characters easily switch from French to Japanese to English to Spanish.  Refreshingly, it's not the Chicago company negotiating with the New York office, but France and Japan.  America is present, but is just another country for once.  I also liked the hilarious indifference the characters have towards the hentai.  At one point they are calmly discussing sales figures while the porn is just on in the background, the voice actress just rhythmically squealing away.

So here's what's not so hot: the plot is bananas.  At one point, one of the other executives threatens the main character's life.  They point a gun at her head while she's driving.  Having delivered the threat, they then hop out of the car. She calls them.  They pick up the hone (why?) she asks them to talk to her.  She offers them a ride home (why??) after a bit of talk, they hop back in the car with her (why???) and give her the gun (whyyyy????!?!?!)  I think it's supposed to be jarring and to highlight that all of this is really impersonal theatrics, just business.  But it's completely confusing and silly.

Also, because the central deal revolves around hentai, there's a lot of porn involved and (of course) the protagonist woman is not above using sex to get what she wants.  It's supposed to be titillating, but it's fairly tawdry.  The film is supposed to be confusing and sexy and ambiguous, but it's sometimes difficult to distinguish this from just inept and smutty.