“Both Sides of the Blade” (MA) *** and a half

TWO people of one sex, one person of the other. Storytellers in all media know they can be on to a surefire best seller if they tell that story effectively and convincingly. 

“Both Sides of the Blade” depends for its story on director Claire Denis’ adaptation of Christine Angot’s novel “Fire, or With Love And Fury”.

Sara, for a decade, has lived happily with Jean (Vincent Lindon). Until the day she passes Jean’s friend Francois (Grégoire Colin) in the street. 

Here’s the complexity on which the film depends. For when Sara began her live-in relationship with Jean, she perforce ended the one she was in with Francois.

Two men. One woman. The classic situation is waiting to explode. And with Juliette Binoche playing Sara, the explosion is a beauty. Metaphorically, that is. 

The film relies for its conflict more on dialogue than on visual images. Binoche is, quite simply, an acting powerhouse, scarcely raising her tone.

Director Denis avoids clogging the film with over-decorated locations, relying on novelist Angot to generate the characters that drive the story. 

Angot’s own life could constitute a novel – and the best stories are those told by people who know because they have themselves lived them. 

A prolific and controversial writer, her novels focus on a variety of taboo topics, including homosexuality, incest and sexual violence, presented in a way that obscures the line between autobiography and fiction. 

“Both Sides of the Blade” won’t send you laughing all the way back into the real world. But its view of relationships, their strengths and their pitfalls has merit.

At Palace Electric