Thomas’s review published on Letterboxd:
Catherine Breillat knows how to portray heterosexual sex like the most miserable act on Earth. Maybe there is a Breillat film out there where people have sex and are happy about it but four movies into her filmography, I haven´t found one yet. Plotwise, I find “Anatomy of Hell” a bit duller than “Romance”, its spiritual predecessor, and even more pretentious in its dialogue but the film´s grotesque, provocative bizarreness makes it kind of captivating to watch. Amira Casar and Rocco Siffredi (yes, really!) deliver vulnerable performances and I continue to be fascinated by the raw, frank, and transgressive way with which Breillat portrays and discusses sexuality and gender politics. I guess I just don´t feel as pessimistic about male/female relationships and heterosexual sex as she seems to feel.
I find it funny that “Anatomy of Hell” is as sexually explicit and shocking as a mainstream “erotic” film (there is nothing erotic about it) can be and yet it´s still probably one the tamer movies Rocco Siffredi starred in.
