Fatal Femmes: Neige / The Bitch

From the neon underworld of early '80s Paris come two stylish, atmospheric crime stories: Juliet Berto and Jean-Henri Roger’s Neige (Snow, 1981) starring Berto and Christine Pascal’s La Garce (The Bitch, 1984) starring Isabelle Huppert.

In Neige, Berto (Celine and Julie Go Boating and La Chinoise) is a barmaid in the red light Pigalle district. When a young drug dealer (Ras Paul Nephtali), who she helped raise, is gunned down by undercover police, she attempts to score heroin for his now-desperate clientele. She is aided in her quest by her French-Hungarian kickboxer boyfriend (Jean-François Stévenin, Out 1 and Small Change) and a West Indian preacher (Robert Liensol, Soleil O). A dynamic portrait of a diverse Parisian community, Neige’s observations about this unique place are simultaneously inspiring and heartbreaking. The film’s stunning imagery is a credit to famed cinematographer William Lubtchansky (a collaborator of Rivette, Godard, Lanzmann, Truffaut and Varda). Now restored in 4K from its original 35mm camera negative, Neige is a vital window into a milieu that’s rarely been captured on film before or since.

In The Bitch, Isabelle Huppert (La Ceremonie, The Piano Teacher and Elle) is the mysterious woman at the heart of a Hitchcockian tale set in the world of French high couture. After serving time for rape, disgraced cop Lucien Sabatier (Richard Berry, Pascal’s Le Petit Prince a dit) is released from prison and finds work as a private detective. His first case takes him to the Sentier quarter, Paris’s garment district, where he becomes emmeshed in a bizarre web that includes a gangster (Vittorio Mezzogiorno, The Moon in the Gutter) and his former girlfriend, clothing boutique owner Edith (Huppert)… the same woman who sent Sabatier to prison years before. Harking back to the classic noir era, this handsome production features a haunting score by Phillipe Sarde (Quest for Fire and Polanski’s Tess) and vibrant cinematography by Raoul Coutard (Godard’s Breathless, Jules and Jim and Z). Restored in 4K from its original 35mm camera negative, The Bitch now makes its worldwide Blu-ray premiere.