MICK MIDDLES

IT was undoubtedly the sultry pout and Rubenesque curves of Beatrice Dalle that firmly established Betty Blue as one of the most rented videos of all time. As this sensual feast is now stretched to Director's Cut length, no doubt it will gain a further audience, largely with young post-pub males.

Opening with a lingering shot of the central couple in a state of sexual congress beneath the knowing smile of the Mona Lisa, Betty Blue immediately establishes its bold intent. In a novelistic manner, the film revolves slowly around the relationship between the tempestuous enigmatic Betty and her rather less complex lover, Zorg, a maintenance man at a bizarre wooden seaside resort. This setting allows director Jean-Jacques Beineix to indulge himself in a series of aesthetically geared shots, including a saxophone player silhouetted in the sunset; a stylish yet superfluous trick,

Zorg, it soon transpires, is an unpublished novelist given to sinking into alcoholic moroseness. Betty, his gorgeous, enigmatic muse, discovers his handwritten work and sets herself the task of typing the manuscript before whisking it to an array of apparently unimpressed publishers.

All this allows Beineix scope to feast his visual talents on the largely unclad Betty and Zorg. It's a task, much to the delight of his mass voyeuristic audience, in which he excels. However, while the film is good looking in every possible sense, it fails to produce any lasting emotive depth or lyrical substance.