Sex Is Comedy (2002)

70% of critics liked it
(46 reviews)
50% of users liked it
(4,166 ratings)

Catherine Breillat's Sex is Comedy concerns a female film director, Jeanne (Anne Parillaud), who is attempting to film a sex scene in her new movie. Complicating the already emotionally difficult shoot is the fact that Jeanne and her lead actor (Grégoire Colin) are sexually involved. The scene being… More Catherine Breillat's Sex is Comedy concerns a female film director, Jeanne (Anne Parillaud), who is attempting to film a sex scene in her new movie. Complicating the already emotionally difficult shoot is the fact that Jeanne and her lead actor (Grégoire Colin) are sexually involved. The scene being shot echoes with a scene in Breillat's previous film, Fat Girl, adding to the supposed "reality" of the situations presented in the film. Roxane Mesquida rounds out the cast as the actress playing the 15-year-old in the scene being filmed. Sex Is Comedy was screened during the Director's Fortnight at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 32 min.
Directed By: Catherine Breillat
Written By: Catherine Breillat
Genres: Drama, Art House & International, Comedy, Special Interest

In Theaters: Oct 14, 2004 Wide
On DVD: Feb 22, 2005
Studio: IFC Films

Critic Reviews

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle
Annoying, soporific and, despite its title, singularly humorless.
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post
Reminds us what a vulnerable undertaking acting can be, and what an intimate, manipulative, caring and torturous act directing is.
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press
If Breillat's aim is demystifying how passion and desire are simulated on-screen, then Sex Is Comedy is successful.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Sex Is Comedy is not sure what it's really about, or how to get there.
Ty Burr, Boston Globe
A rigorous and bracingly charming movie about moviemaking.
Allison Benedikt, Chicago Tribune
Curious but small and lackluster film.
Jake Euker, F5 (Wichita, KS)
Takes an absurdist approach to a sophomoric subject and wrings real laughs from it; a terrific comedy about lust, filmmaking, and the human psyche at its most clandestine.
MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher
[H]olds multiple mirrors up to itself, creating a neverending series of reflections and self-referents...
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com
a mistitled disaster
James Plath, Movie Metropolis
A dry and witty cinema verite-style film that has the feel of an unscripted behind-the-scenes documentary.
Shawn Levy, Oregonian
Sex Is Comedy is a lively, frank and often perceptive anatomy of screen acting and directing: insightful, self-mocking and engagingly alive.
Phil Villarreal, Arizona Daily Star
An eyes-rolling, forehead-smacking glimpse through the eyes of an artist in her farcical struggle
James Verniere, Boston Herald
If you sometimes have the feeling French films are made by the most spoiled and self-involved upper-middle-class twits imaginable, it might be because of such films as Sex Is Comedy.
Tom Keogh, Seattle Times
In Jeanne's world, and Breillat's, filmed sex is no ordinary eye candy. For their characters, it's an admission of a dark, complicated interior life that only the bravest of actors, finally, can expose on screen.

Read all 14 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Jim H

A director cajoles, threatens, berates, and befriends her actors in order to get them to perform the perfect sex scene. The shooting of a sex scene has always been a curiosity for me. To put something so personal and private on screen in front of everyone from one's fellow… More
A director cajoles, threatens, berates, and befriends her actors in order to get them to perform the perfect sex scene. The shooting of a sex scene has always been a curiosity for me. To put something so personal and private on screen in front of everyone from one's fellow actors to the Teamsters rep to the gum-chewing, fanny-pack-wearing, high school dropout key grip speaks to what levels of courage actors must have to do such a job. But this film doesn't focus on the actors' journeys but the director's various tactics to get them to do the scene. I can see how this concept might make a good film, but not with this director. Jeanne is a myopic, self-centered bitch, and her little manipulations are thoroughly uninteresting. What is more, I had trouble seeing the real conflict in the film. It's true that the Actor was resisting Jeanne's appeals, but I didn't see any real rebellion like the clear refusal of Sarah Jessica Parker's character in State and Main. The actors in Sex is Comedy seem willing and professional even though they are naturally uncomfortable. Overall, despite its title, Sex is Comedy isn't funny or particularly insightful, and its focus is on the least interesting and least appealing character in the film.
Red L

A movie about making a movie. The director in the film tries everything from cajoling to befriending to get a sex scene correctly played in her film. The last scene of this movie is the filming of that sex scene in the movie. I gotta say, it looks like they got it done right. But… More
A movie about making a movie. The director in the film tries everything from cajoling to befriending to get a sex scene correctly played in her film. The last scene of this movie is the filming of that sex scene in the movie. I gotta say, it looks like they got it done right. But this movie seemed to take too long. I'm sure they could have achieved the same reaction from her audience in a movie half as long as it was.
Antony S

Disappointing work from French stalwart Breillat? Afraid so. Though highly interesting on paper, the execution of Sex Is Comedy falls well flat. The plot circles around (it might as well be a making of) A Ma Souer, her 2001 emotionally upsetting drama, regarding the difficulty of… More
Disappointing work from French stalwart Breillat? Afraid so. Though highly interesting on paper, the execution of Sex Is Comedy falls well flat. The plot circles around (it might as well be a making of) A Ma Souer, her 2001 emotionally upsetting drama, regarding the difficulty of creating a sex scene between two bickering actors. New names are adopted, but when the actress is re-used, there's no denying the AMS link. The main concern here is that Catherine is normally in her element delving into psycho-sexuality, but for this project she seems a million miles away. It's not insightful, it's not funny (as the title might suggest), and feels like it could have easily been a 20-minute skit instead of a 90-minute picture. All I really gleaned was that the actor used a prosthetic cock and that shooting sex scenes can sometimes be awkward. I never would have guessed that.
Sunil J

This is like watching funny porn...except its not funny or sexy. It's just weird.